Eversholt Rail Group is a British

rolling stock company A rolling stock company (ROSCO) or rolling stock leasing company owns and maintains railway engines and carriages which are leased to train operating companies who operate the trains. Rolling stock companies have been criticised as rentier capit ...

(ROSCO). Together with

Angel Trains Angel Trains is a British rolling stock company (ROSCO). Together with Eversholt Rail Group and Porterbrook, it is one of the three original ROSCOs. Angel Trains was established in March 1994 as part of the privatisation of British Rail. In No ...

and Porterbrook, it is one of the three original ROSCOs created as a result of the

privatisation of British Rail The privatisation of British Rail was the process by which ownership and operation of the Rail transport in Great Britain, railways of Great Britain passed from government control into private hands. Begun in 1994, the process was largely compl ...

. Eversholt was established in March 1994 and was promptly privatised one year later via a £580 million

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management- and/or leveraged buyouts became noted phenomena of 19 ...

. During February 1997, it was acquired by the

Midland Bank Midland Bank plc was one of the Big Four (banks)#United Kingdom, Big Four banking groups in the United Kingdom for most of the 20th century. It is now part of HSBC. The bank was founded as the Birmingham and Midland Bank in Union Street, Birming ...

and briefly renamed ''Forward Trust'', and again renamed ''HSBC Rail''. The company has primarily operated within the UK market, but between 2000 and 2009, HSBC Rail was also active on the European leasing market as well, before selling off this arm of the business to rival leasing firm Beacon Rail. As HSBC Rail, it was involved in the supply of 28 British Rail Class 395 high speed train sets from Hitachi Europe in a £250million contract. The company also submitted an unsolicited response to the

Intercity Express Programme The Intercity Express Programme (IEP) was an initiative of the Department for Transport (DfT) in the United Kingdom to procure new trains to replace the InterCity 125 and InterCity 225 fleets on the East Coast Main Line and Great Western Main Li ...

, which was dismissed. In January 2010, HSBC Rail was rebranded back to the Eversholt Rail Group before being sold onto a

consortium A consortium () is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations, or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a ...

of private finance companies. It changed hands again during January 2015, being bought by a consortium of

CK Hutchison Holdings CK Hutchison Holdings Limited () is a Hong Kong–based and Cayman Islands–registered multinational conglomerate corporation. The company was formed in March 2015 through the merger of Cheung Kong Holdings and its main associate company Hutc ...

and Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings. During the 2010s, the company focused on either selling or retrofitting aging elements of its rolling stock fleet.

History

Eversholt Rail Group was established on 21 March 1994 as a subsidiary of

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

in preparation for the

. It was named after Eversholt Street in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

near

Euston station Euston railway station ( ; or London Euston) is a major London station group, central London railway terminus and Euston tube station, connected London Underground station managed by Network Rail in the London Borough of Camden. It is the sout ...

in which British Rail's offices were located. During November 1995, British Rail sold its subsidiary via a

in exchange for £580 million; this price was subsequently criticised for being undervalued. In February 1997, Eversholt was acquired by the

at a reported cost of £726.5 million. At this time, its portfolio consisted of 4,000 electric locomotives and passenger multiple units. One year later, Eversholt was renamed ''Forward Trust''. During November 1999, it was again renamed, this time to ''HSBC Rail'', as part of a rebranding by parent company

HSBC HSBC Holdings plc ( zh, t_hk=滙豐; initialism from its founding member The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) is a British universal bank and financial services group headquartered in London, England, with historical and business li ...

. In 2000, HSBC Rail leased its first rolling stock outside of the United Kingdom via a financing arrangement on two

EMD JT42CWR The Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD) Class 66 (EMD JT42CWR) are Co-Co locomotives, Co-Co diesel locomotives built by EMD for the European heavy freight market. Designed for use in Great Britain as the British Rail Class 66, a development of the Briti ...

s for Swedish freight operator TGOJ Trafik. However, during 2009, the company ultimately opted to entirely withdraw from the European market; to this end, it sold its fleet of twenty EMD JT42CWR locomotives to Beacon Rail. 395018 London St Pancras

During June 2005, a contract valued at £250million was signed with Hitachi Europe to supply 28 British Rail Class 395 high speed train sets, with HSBC Rail acting as the financier. This contract was also the first ever British order for a Japanese train; Hitachi reportedly viewed the deal as a key opportunity to establish itself in the UK market. HSBC Rail also involved itself in a consortium providing maintenance services, referred to as 'DEPCO', to the fleet; other members were Fitzpatrick Contractors Ltd (construction), RPS Burks Green (architects/civil engineers), EMCOR UK (mechanical and electrical plant) and GrantRail (trackwork).Sources: * * * * In January 2010, HSBC Rail was rebranded back to the Eversholt Rail Group. During November 2010, Eversholt was sold to a consortium of 3i,

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in 42 countries and more than 80,000 employees, the firm's clients in ...

and Star Capital Partners. During the early 2010s, in response to the

led by Britain's

Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport ...

, Eversholt issued its own counter-proposal for the renewal of rolling stock on the

East Coast Main Line The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between its northern terminus at and southern terminus at . The key towns and cities of , , , , and are on the line. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Grea ...

. This option, which would have reportedly consisted of new locomotives and carriages, was to be considerably cheaper than the Class 800, a Hitachi-built high speed multiple unit train. However, Eversholt was ultimately unable to convince the DfT to pursue their solution. In addition to the acquisition of new rolling stock, Eversholt has been a keen advocate of upgrading existing units as well. Its fleet of Class 321 electric multiple units has been subject to numerous extensive alterations and retrofits; in December 2013, it rebuilt one as a demonstrator for a proposed upgrade. In May 2018, plans were announced to convert some Class 321s with

Alstom Alstom SA () is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer which operates worldwide in rail transport markets. It is active in the fields of passenger transportation, signaling, and locomotives, producing high-speed, suburban, regional ...

hydrogen cells, using the acronym HMU (hydrogen multiple unit) and re-designated Class 600. A number of this class of train will be converted to hydrogen power and operational by 2024. The first concept of this conversion, dubbed "Breeze", was revealed by Alstom and Eversholt Rail in January 2019. In March 2021, Eversholt announced the conversion of one for use as a parcels train. In January 2015, Eversholt was purchased by a consortium of

and Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings in exchange for a reported £2 billion. At this time, it controlled roughly 28 percent of passenger trains within the UK market, thus the deal was subject to review by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

. In March 2015, Eversholt announced the sale of its 920 wagon fleet to NACCO Industries. While responsibility for the Class 365 EMUs was transferred to Eversholt during the privatisation process, due to the

British Railways Board The British Railways Board (BRB) was a State ownership, nationalised industry in the United Kingdom that operated from 1963 to 2001. Until 1997, it was responsible for most railway services in History of rail transport in Great Britain 1995 to d ...

having leased rather than purchased these units, via a clause in the original procurement contract, ownership of the remaining 40 sets passed to the

subsidiary Train Fleet (2019) Limited in July 2019, after it was obliged to pay out the leases to the

Royal Bank of Scotland The Royal Bank of Scotland Public Limited Company () is a major retail banking, retail and commercial bank in Scotland. It is one of the retail banking subsidiaries of NatWest Group, together with NatWest and Ulster Bank. The Royal Bank of Sco ...

in the event that the trains were not wanted. In July 2021, all were sold back to Eversholt after the termination of their leases with

Govia Thameslink Railway Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) is a British train operating company that operates the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise, TSGN rail franchise. Within the franchise, GTR runs trains under the sub-brands: Thameslink, Great North ...

was agreed. By May 2022, Eversholt Rail Group owned 3,246 vehicles, of which 2,721 are electric-powered.

Initial fleet

The fleet Eversholt Rail Group inherited from

in 1994 comprised:

Pre-Series Revolution VLR

In December 2023 Eversholt Rail ordered three Pre-Series Revolution VLR (RVLR) battery-only vehicles, with lineside fast charging, from TDI, for passenger trials and service. They will be built from 2024 and are expected to be ready for passenger operation in 2026. They will be based on the RVLR Demonstrator tested at

Ironbridge Ironbridge is a riverside village in the borough of Telford and Wrekin, Shropshire, England. Located on the bank of the River Severn, at the heart of the Ironbridge Gorge, it lies in the civil parish of The Gorge. Ironbridge developed beside, ...

. A report says they will be long, formed with composite carbon fibre and aluminium panels and have 56 seats and a maximum speed of , which is the same as the demonstrator car, which had a steel ladder chassis, was wide, high and had four single leaf sliding

plug door A plug door is a door designed to seal itself by taking advantage of pressure difference on its two sides and is typically used on aircraft with cabin pressurization. The higher pressure on one side forces the usually wedge-shaped door into its ...

References

External links

* {{HSBC CK Hutchison Holdings Former HSBC subsidiaries Post-privatisation British railway companies Privatisation of British Rail Railway companies established in 1994 Rolling stock leasing companies 3i Group companies 1994 establishments in England