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Home Supply Chain Three wins for CAF in annual rail industry Golden Spanner Awards

Three wins for CAF in annual rail industry Golden Spanner Awards

Train manufacturer CAF is celebrating a hat-trick of wins at the annual Golden Spanner Awards which were held in London.

Organised by leading trade publication Modern Railways the awards are valued highly by the rail industry as they are based purely on data provided by train operators to the Rail Delivery Group every month.

The awards cover train reliability over the previous twelve months with trains split into categories based on their age and type and awards covering Most Reliable (Gold), Most Improved Reliability (Silver) and Fastest Incident Recovery (Bronze); the latter reflects how quickly a train can be back on the move completing its journey if a technical problem occurs.

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The results are compiled by Modern Railways’ highly respected Industry and Technology Editor Roger Ford.

This year CAF’s three-car Class 195/1 diesel fleet, which is operated by Northern Trains, and the four-car Class 331/1 electric trains, also operated by Northern, were awarded Silver Spanners in the Second Generation New DMU and EMU categories respectively. This shows that as the trains have settled down into service and both depot engineers and drivers have become familiar with them their reliability has improved rapidly.

Silver Spanner CAF 331 four car

Meanwhile the Class 397 five-car electric units operated by TransPennine Express were awarded a Bronze Spanner in the Second Generation New Inter-City Train category. Again this bodes well for the operator as it prepares to step-up the number of services operated by the fleet in December.

Bronze Spanner TPE 397

CAF UK Director Richard Garner commented: “CAF are thrilled to be recognised by industry experts at this year’s Golden Spanners across three categories – commending both our EMU and DMU fleets.

“This is of particularly great importance to us in relation to the reliability of our trains at a time where passengers are steadily returning to rail following the pandemic.

“I’d like to congratulate and thank colleagues from CAF, Northern and TransPennine Express who work hard, day in and day out, to ensure the trains are as reliable as possible for passengers.”

Founder of the Golden Spanner Awards, Roger Ford, said: “It’s good to see CAF winning its first Spanners. Particular credit goes to the Class 331 fleet which I have been using as a rare example of the ‘bathtub curve’ reliability growth in new rolling stock.”

Photo credit: CAF/ Tony Miles

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