£88m order confirmed for longer Overground trains

A DEAL worth £88 million has been signed with Bombardier by Transport for London, which said earlier this year that it intended to increase the size of the Overground fleet in response to sharply rising demand.

57 more Class 378 vehicles will now be built in Derby, with the first examples coming into service in December next year.

The new vehicles will allow all the Class 378s operated by London Overground to be extended from four to five cars.

The present fleet was also built at Derby a few years ago, after the operation of former Silverlink Metro routes had passed to Transport for London in November 2007.

Acting director for TfL London Rail Jonathan Fox said: “With this order, the London Overground Capacity Improvement Programme is firmly underway to meet the demands of increasing numbers travelling on our network. We are looking forward to introducing the longer trains from the end of 2014, starting on the East London Line.

“In 2012/13, the network carried nearly 125 million passengers – nearly four times the number carried when we launched in 2007."

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