EVERSHOLT Rail, Southeastern and Hitachi Rail have signed an agreement worth £27m to upgrade the 29 class 395 Javelin high-speed trains which operate on High Speed 1 between London St Pancras and Kent.

The first phase of the programme will take seven months to complete and will include design, engineering and procurement.

This will be followed by a full interior refurbishment of the fleet, which entered service in 2009, including new carpets and seats, and new seating layouts to assist passengers with reduced mobility. There will also be upgrades to the live passenger information system, including the installation of new media screens along with CCTV upgrades and installation of USB at-seat charging and LED lighting.

Work on the first of the trains will commence in March 2023 at Southeastern’s Ashford depot. In addition, Hitachi will install its digital infrastructure monitoring technology on the fleet. Exterior roof-mounted cameras will monitor the condition of the pantograph as well as overhead lines and surrounding equipment.

The refurbishment will include revising the interior layout.