A British-built Alstom Aventra train fleet for West Midlands Railway has carried more than 12 million passengers since completing its rollout on a popular Birmingham route one year ago.
Passengers on the Cross-City Line – which connects Lichfield to Bromsgrove and Redditch via Birmingham – first boarded the new Class 730/0 electric train fleet in March 2024, with the full rollout officially completed on 26 September 2024.
In their first year, the new three-car trains have proven popular with commuters and leisure travellers alike, with more than a million journeys made every single month. West Midlands Railway reported a 19% rise in customer satisfaction on the route since they entered service, citing their spacious carriages, intelligent air conditioning and modern features as factors behind the uplift.
The new trains were built at Alstom’s historic Derby Litchurch Lane Works, the only train factory in the UK able to design, engineer, build and test trains for domestic and export markets. West Midlands Railway’s new trains are part of Alstom’s Aventra line-up, the biggest train manufacturing programme in a generation. In total, Alstom has produced 2,660 EMU Aventra cars for the Elizabeth line, London Overground, Greater Anglia, c2c, South Western Railway and West Midlands Trains (which incorporates West Midlands Railway) since 2015.
“This new fleet is the flagship for our GBP 1 billion [EUR 1.15 billion] investment into new trains and infrastructure. We want to provide the best possible passenger experience, and we are so pleased that the Class 730/0s are making such a positive impact on customer satisfaction already,” said Jonny Wiseman, West Midlands Railway Customer Experience Director.
The Cross-City Line is the busiest commuter route outside of London with Alstom Aventra train carrying over 1,000 passengers on every Cross-City Line service.
West Midlands Railway is part of West Midlands Trains, a train operating company that also runs London Northwestern Railway services. As part of the Aventra programme, Alstom built 36 five-carriage Class 730/2 trains – a total of 180 new carriages – for London Northwestern Railway, bringing an overall 20% uplift in capacity on routes to and from London Euston railway station.
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