 the first refurbished class 168 with chiltern railways was launched on wednesday 9th october at london marylebone station during a special event attended by rail partners and user groups carried out at the arrive traincare facility in crewe upgrades to the class 168 fleet include a heavy maintenance baseline which includes battery and air system overhauls amongst other modifications an exterior repaint of the units a multi million pound investment on the interior upgrading the passenger environment passenger enhancement modifications including the installation of a new wi fi system and the inclusion of usb charging sockets fleet reliability improvements during the launch guests were welcomed on the platform by a string quartet and a unique ai experience where they were able to take a futuristic image of themselves with a background of the train a ribbon cutting also took place with arriva uk trains managing director david brown chiltern railways managing director richard allan rachel blake mp cities of london and westminster and porterbrook coo ben ackroyd the first train to be fully refurbished is now serving customers travelling on the operators main line routes from london marylebone between oxford and birmingham ben ackroyd chief operating officer of porterbrook said the 168s are an excellent fleet and have been serving chiltern passengers well since they were introduced this refurbishment programme will ensure these trains continue to serve passengers comfortably and reliably for many more years to come this significant milestone would not have been possible without a true partnership approach congratulations to everyone involved in the project richard allan managing director of chiltern railways said chiltern has a comprehensive vision and three stage plan to modernise and decarbonise our railway for our customers and neighbours the first part of the plan is to improve our existing trains with 12m being spent on 85 carriages that were built in the late 1990s and early 2000s the first train to benefit from that investment is now back in service following a refurbishment that means customers will experience new seat cushions and covers new carpet new lighting better wifi and new plug sockets that include usb charging points i am impressed with the end result and hope it is welcomed by customers the remaining class 168 trains will be refurbished and ready for passenger service in the coming months 