{"id":344975,"date":"2026-01-08T22:24:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T12:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/railuk.com\/?p=187590"},"modified":"2026-01-08T22:24:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T12:24:06","slug":"porterbrook-acquires-corelink-fleets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=344975","title":{"rendered":"Porterbrook acquires Corelink fleets"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Rolling stock financier Porterbrook has completed a deal to acquire 404 vehicles owned by Corelink Rail Infrastructure Limited (Corelink).<\/p>\n

The fleet of 324 Class 730 Aventra electric and 80 Class 196 diesel units, operated by West Midland Trains (WMT), serve passengers on regional and long-distance routes between London, Birmingham, and Liverpool. Together, they account for 60% of WMT\u2019s network operations.<\/p>\n

Mary Grant, Porterbrook CEO, said: \u201cWest Midlands Trains has been one of our largest customers for over 15 years and this latest transaction solidifies that partnership for the future. It also completes a programme of more than \u00a31 billion of capital deployed during the last five years in new trains, fleet upgrades, traction innovation, and rail infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The five-car Aventras will be stabled and maintained at the Bletchley Train Maintenance Depot. Last year the site was upgraded with modern sidings, inspection facilities, new overhead electrified lines, and gantries following Porterbrook\u2019s \u00a366 million investment.<\/p>\n

Corelink is a joint venture between Infracapital and Pan-European Infrastructure II, a fund managed and advised by DWS Group & GmbH Co KGaA.<\/p>\n

Tom Crawley, managing director at Infracapital, said: \u201cWe are proud to have established Corelink with DWS, delivering a modern and energy-efficient fleet that provides a reliable commuter experience across the West Midlands rail network. We believe Porterbrook is well-positioned to continue supporting Corelink\u2019s mission to deliver dependable and sustainable rail transport in the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamish Mackenzie, Partner and Global Head of Infrastructure at DWS, commented: \u201cCorelink is a core infrastructure asset that provides an essential rail transportation service to key routes in the United Kingdom. The successful sale of Corelink by Pan-European Infrastructure II showcases DWS\u2019s experience across the transportation sector and its active asset management expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Porterbrook were advised by CA-CIB (Financial), Freeths (Legal) and Deloitte (Tax). Infracapital and DWS were advised by DC Advisory (Financial) and Eversheds Sutherland (Legal).<\/p>\n

Image credit: Porterbrook<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Rolling stock financier Porterbrook has completed a deal to acquire 404 vehicles owned by Corelink Rail Infrastructure Limited (Corelink). The fleet of 324 Class 730 Aventra electric and 80 Class 196 diesel units, operated by West Midland Trains (WMT), serve passengers on regional and long-distance routes between London, Birmingham, and Liverpool. Together, they account for [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1139,16017,16220,47,180,85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-344975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-finance","category-industry-news","category-rail-business","category-rail-news","category-rolling-stock","category-uk"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=344975"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":345681,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344975\/revisions\/345681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=344975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=344975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=344975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}