Axalta Coating Systems has been working with Bombardier Transportation on two major railway projects in London, England. Bombardier Transportation is a global leader in the rail industry, with 61 production and engineering sites and 18 service centers in 28 countries. Both projects will utilize products from Axalta’s leading Imron® Hydro portfolio of coatings.

Steve Wilson, Axalta’s Rail Business Development and Key Account Manager for EMEA, and his team have been working for more than two years on the Elizabeth Line (previously known as the Crossrail project), which involves 669 rail cars. From improving journey times across London, to easing congestion and offering better connections, The Elizabeth Line will provide easier, quicker and more direct travel opportunities across London. The project is among the most significant infrastructure projects ever undertaken in the UK and is Europe’s largest construction project – work started in May 2009 and there are currently over 10,000 people working across over 40 construction sites. It will transform rail transport in London and the south east of England, increasing central London rail capacity by 10%, supporting regeneration and cutting journey times across the city.

The trains will be light – constructed using materials such as aluminium for the body shell – yet well equipped for performance and customer comfort with features such as intelligent lighting and temperature control systems.

“After several successful product tests and line trials, the first Elizabeth Line train is now being tested. This is the first time that Axalta’s Imron HydroBasecoat 8200 and Imron HydroClearcoat HC300 – both new product developments of ours specifically for the rail industry – have been used for a major railway project,” Wilson says.


Axalta’s second significant rail project with Bombardier is also based around the same new technology products – Imron HydroBasecoat 8200 and Imron HydroClearcoat HC300. The LOTRAIN project, which comprises 180 rail cars, expects its next-generation AVENTRA trains to feature an innovative design with optimized performance, including reduced weight, energy consumption, maintenance costs and high reliability providing substantial benefits to passengers traveling on key London Overground routes.

Production of these rail cars starts in 2016 and the new trains are expected to enter into passenger service between December 2017 and October 2018.

Wilson says, “Working on these two very large rail projects has been a concerted team effort. Our challenge has been to meet the extremely stringent requirements at every step of the development process, but with our extensive coating experience we have been able to deliver what Bombardier needed.”