Mark Hopwood, Managing Director of Silverlink hosted an event at Bletchley depot on 7 February 2006 to mark the excellent work carried out by maintenance staff at the depot on the Class 321 fleet which are now officially the most reliable fleet of EMUs in the UK.

Modern Railways magazine Industry and Technology Editor Roger Ford, who hosts the ‘Golden Spanner’ awards for achievements in train maintenance, has two years running (2005 and 2006) made the award to Bletchley for maintaining the most reliable ex-BR fleet of EMUs. Indeed most of the depots units bow carry stick-on ‘spanners’ on the cab doors like ‘strike’ symbols on a fighters cockpit side!

The skills of the technicians and engineers at Bletchley, two of which have been at the site since it opened in 1965, maintain a fleet of 37 Class 321s which over 12 months to November 2006 achieved a staggering 43,267 miles between failures. The 43,267 mile figure is for the fleet as an average, however on two occasions in the same period the fleet set monthly miles per casualty figures exceeding 100,000 miles.

Mark Hopwood and Roger Ford paid tribute to the skill and enthusiasm of the depot staff of 54, Mark said “what we celebrate at Bletchley is more than just a professional maintenance depot, it is a unique centre of excellence” The company is not the only TOC operating 20 year old trains, but no other company comes even near the reliability obtained from the Bletchley fleet. Nobody can put their finger on why this is, apart from low staff turnover, and a quality workforce willing to learn and develop skills, with older staff passing on local knowledge to younger members of the team.

At one time Bletchley was doomed, with franchise changes moving the 321s to Northampton and 313s to Willesden, however this is now not on the agenda and Mark Hopwood considers that even after the changes at the end of 2007 to Silvelink the depot will still have a major roll to play.

After speeches, Mark Hopwood invited Roger to unveil the cast nameplate Bletchley Pride on the side of car No. 71793 from set No. 321425.

The present Bletchley depot was opened in 1965 as part of the modernisation of the London Midland Region, replacing a steam depot which was located on the present station car park site. The present Bletchley depot has maintained a number of classes of train over the years, including Class 08 locos, Class 304, 310, 313, 317, 321, 323, 350 EMUs, Class 115, 117, 121 and 150 DMUs plus frequent visits from many other classes of diesel and ac electric locos.