Olympic 'bullet' train arrives in the UK

Fast and easy access to the London Olympic Games at Stratford, London in 2012 will be possible, thanks to a delivery of the UK's first bullet train by Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics and Hitachi Europe.

Two years of intensive logistics planning came to fruition over the weekend with the first of 29 striking blue Class 395 High Speed trains built by Hitachi for rail operator Southeastern were delicately rolled off Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics' ship the MV Tarago in Southampton after a six week, 10,760 kilometre voyage from Kobe in Japan to Southampton.

The bullet train, the first ever to arrive in Britain and the first to be shipped using a single logistics provider, will be joined by 29 others on the Southeastern Railways High Speed 1 line between Ashford, Kent, South East England, and London's newly refurbished St Pancras terminal and the Kent Coast.

Travelling up to speeds of 225 km/ph (140 mph) the trains will enter service in 2009 and play a key role in ensuring a journey time of just seven minutes from St Pancras to the London Olympic Games at Stratford in 2012.

Each carriage was stowed on board MV Tarago in Kobe on its own rail bogies which were then lashed on to two rubber tyre bogies specially designed by WWL to accommodate each rail carriage.

The unloading operation from MV Tarago was a delicate and complex one. It took hours to painstakingly roll each of the first six carriages of the train off MV Tarago.

Once rolled off the vessel, each carriage was then meticulously lifted from the rubber tyre bogies onto the tracks. This was achieved by the use of two mammoth cranes - one situated at each end of the carriage.

Each of the carriages was then pushed together by a tug master to form it into a complete train before being carefully rolled away under cover for safe keeping.

The train will then be rail hauled to a new-purpose-built maintenance facility in Ashford, Kent for commissioning prior to nighttime testing starting on the mainline network in early October 2007.

"The management of the train's shipment required detailed team planning every step of the way," said Mark Bookham, head of Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics Southampton. "Our operational skills were really put to the test in being able to deliver this train safely, on time, to budget and in an environmentally-friendly way for Hitachi," he added.

By the end of the year four more of the six-car trains are due to arrive in Southampton, while the remaining 25 trains to complete the order will be delivered in 2009.

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