Rail is no place for a dirty past
Manufacturer of specialist cleaning and maintenance products, Arrow Solutions is celebrating a successful decade working with Arriva Trains Wales to ensure the train operating company constantly maintains clean rolling stock.
For the past ten years, Arrow Solutions has been providing two key exterior cleaning products to Arriva Trains Wales: Ecowash Autoshine and Germfree 61.
Ecowash Autoshine is an exterior train wash that specialises in removing oil, greases, dirt and grime, whilst helping to build a water and soil resistant finish to livery and rolling stock.
In addition, Ecowash Autoshine is specially formulated to have a neutral pH – between 8.0 and 10.0. This guarantees that the wash is fully biodegradable and environmentally safe. Train operating companies have strict consent to discharge rates that dictate pH levels of waste water must be neutral – anywhere from 4.5 up to about 10.0. This is surveyed by local water boards every six weeks.
Arriva Trains Wales was originally attracted to Arrow Solutions because of the ease at which large quantities of wash could be delivered. Scientifics approved, Ecowash Autoshine comes in three sizes; 20 litre, 210 litres or 1000 litres, which makes it ideal for different sized rail fleets.
Uniquely, Arriva Trains Wales uses Germfree 61 – a cleaner and sanitiser – to disinfect the underside of its trains and carriages. More commonly used within interior train cleaning applications, Germfree 61 is employed by Arriva as a preventative measure against bacteria. The sanitiser ensures that anyone working underneath rolling stock is unlikely to be exposed to bacteria found on this part of the train.
“We currently operate 314 trains and carriages covering over 13 million miles each year,” explained Phil Morgan, Arriva Trains Wales depot infrastructure manager. “As you may expect, we need a quality exterior wash that’s gentle enough to use daily, but rugged enough to get our rolling stock clean.
“The added bonus of using Ecowash Autoshine is that we have no worries when discharge rate surveys are performed; with thanks to Arrow Solutions, we’ve been able to facilitate a harmonious relationship with the local water authority, Welsh Water.
“We continue to use Arrow Solutions in part because of its excellent service. Our Canton depot covers 120,000 square metres and the wash facility is at the far end from the site entrance. We’ve previously had problems getting cleaning products delivered to our wash plant; for years, we had to move thousands of litres of product ourselves by forklift. After explaining the problem to Arrow Solutions, the company went out of their way to help us by drawing up an alternative route that has proven very successful.”
For further information contact us
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