Bombardier Transportation has signed a contract with National Express Group to provide maintenance for the new Essex Thameside franchise.

The contract — for a 10-year period, with the option to extend for another five years — covers maintenance and spare parts on 74 four-car Class 357 Electrostar trains and is valued at about £143 million.

To help implement this contract, Bombardier will be using its Automatic Vehicle Inspection System. This uses a number of cameras and sensors to monitor and analyse a vehicle’s condition.

Housed in a dedicated structure around and under the tracks, it helps train operators to cut their costs by reducing maintenance interventions while increasing asset utilisation.

Furthermore, it can automatically generate maintenance works orders, provide advanced notification of component wear and even trigger safety alerts — without the intervention of inspection technicians.