Train operator 'one' marked the excellence of its principal train maintenance depot at Ilford on 27 September 2006, when senior management of the company and invited guests toured the facility to see first hand the work undertaken at the Essex site.

Recently 60 Class 317s, previously maintained at Hornsey Depot in North London have been transferred to Ilford, bringing a paper allocated of over 200 units to the site.

'One' Managing Director Dominic Booth paid tribute to the quality of the staff at Ilford and the overall quality of the work they undertake. The facility undertakes cleaning at all levels ranging from a brush through to major pre-planned cleaning, as well as mechanical maintenance including fault finding, bogie changes and electrical repair work.

In addition to the 'one' depot staff one road within the main inspection shed is 'dedicated' to Siemens transportation staff to maintain the Class 360 stock under a separate maintenance contract.

A number of high quality depot based initiative's have been introduced to ease an improve the quality of train, one demonstrated was a bin system where seat covers for the large variety of Class 317s are all kept ready to be used in a bin system, each with an illustrated label assisting staff to find the correct replacement cover with ease. Another depot-generated improvement presently being undertaken is the modification to seats on Class 315s, reducing the floppy and loose cushion problem of recent years.

To mark the achievements of the depot, recently refurbished Class 317/8 No. 317892 was named Ilford Depot, the first time a train has been named after the depot. The unveiling of the case plate was done by Maintenance Manager John Koates who has worked at Ilford for 40 years.