A £200 million agreement to finance a new fleet of Siemens-built trains for the Great Northern route has been confirmed.
Funding for the trains, which will be built by Siemens and operated by Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), will be financed by SL Capital, Aviva Investors and Rock Rail.
The 25 six-car trains, which are a variant of the Class 700 Desiro City for Thameslink, will operate commuter service out of Moorgate to Welwyn Garden City and Letchworth Garden City, via Hertford and Stevenage.
Although the trains will be built in Germany, the new fleet, like the Class 700, will use a network of UK suppliers.
Made up of 150 new vehicles, the fleet will replace GTR’s Class 313s.
GTR Chief Executive Officer Charles Horton said: “We are delighted to have secured the financing for this new fleet which will give our passengers on Great Northern’s suburban routes a modern, high-quality environment which is light years ahead of what we have been able to offer to date with the current 40-year-old stock.
“And when we bring the Moorgate trains online we’ll also increase the frequency of services considerably in the off-peak and at weekends and even, to a lesser degree, in the morning and evening peaks.
“The trains make up just one of three major fleets we are introducing which will steadily improve services and drive up passenger satisfaction.”
Hey Andrew… Wouldn’t you say, this Rocks.
Well to be fair Siemens are currently building 115 new Class 700’s (60 8-Car (700/0) and 55 12-Car (700/1)) Desiro City trains for Thameslink and then Siemens will start building 25 Class 700/2 6-Car trains for Great Northern to replace the 40 year old Class 313’s for Southern (Coastway) and also 30 Class 707 5-Car for South West Trains are also to be built from next year and throughout 2018-19 and completed by 2020.
Where has it been said that these trains are for Southern coastway?
Class 313’s that GN are replacing with the Class 700/2’s may end up with Southern to operate on East Coastway and West Coastway lines. Unless it is to be scrapped.
I suspect a certain young person is getting confused and thinks that the class 313s working on Southern Coastway are part of the same fleet that works to Moorgate. They are not of course, the class 313 examples that went to Southern had a facelift and lost the 25kV equipment. I haven’t seen anything to suggest these trains are to be replaced anytime soon. Will be interesting to see if the Great Northern 313s have a future role elsewhere. Some have suggested that South Wales is a possibility.. .
Class 315’s are to be cascaded to South Wales once the Class 345’s have been built and are in service once the Crossrail project has been completed which is due to be completed in 2018.
That was the original plan, but who knows what will happen now? The first 315s come off lease next year but there is no chance of any of the valleys lines being electrified before 2020 – and the Welsh Government appears to be back-peddling on electrification plans as the true costs become clear. It is looking increasingly likely that several lines in South Wales will remain diesel operated.
It has been noted that 3-car electric trains are better suited to the Welsh Valleys due to existing platform lengths.
http://www.freedomcentral.org.uk/2015/10/welsh-government-must-explain-vanishing-valley-lines.html
Right. Now I do actually understand.
Well the Class 313’s that is to be replaced by the Class 700/2’s could be used with Southern to operate on the East Coastway and West Coastway lines or it could be used in South Wales along with the Class 315’s that are to be cascaded from TfL Rail once the Class 345’s are built and are delivered in time when Crossrail starts operating in 2018. Or the Class 313’s could be scrapped.
Class 700/2 and Class 707 trains are scheduled to be built from next year.
Siemens Desiro City EMU.
Govia Thameslink Railway:
25 6-Car Class 700/2 (700201-700225) for GTR Great Northern.
60 8-Car Class 700/0
(700001-700060) and 55 12-Car Class 700/1 (700101-700155) for GTR Thameslink.
Plus South West Trains are ordering 30 5-Car Class 707 (707001-707030).