Cracks in Hitachi IET sets lead to mass cancellations
TWO major long distance operators, GWR and LNER, were thrown into chaos in the early hours of Saturday, May 8, as they were instructed to stop all movements of their Class 800, 801 and 802 units with immediate effect after the discovery of cracks during maintenance.
What became afast developing situation began shortly after 04.00 and actions included urgent messages to signallers and station staff “not to depart” services being worked by Hitachi units.
By 04.20 a further message had been issued stating: “Hitachi has suspended both LNER and GWR fleets due to severe cracks found on welds on the jacking points on an 80x unit at Stoke Gifford. No 80x units will leave depot or stations until inspected.”
Disruption
Within minutes both TransPennine Express and Hull trains had also stopped all of their Hitachi sets for checks to be completed, and the result across all four operators was widespread disruption to
