Thirty-seven new Class 387 electric multiple units will be delivered to Great Western Railway this year, joining a fleet of eight four-car ‘387s’ that were ordered last March (RAIL 770).
This contract for the new trains will mean that the planned cascade of 29 four-car Class 387/1s from Govia Thameslink Railway to GWR will now not take place.
The new order follows discussions with the Department for Transport, and means that GWR can now go ahead with introducing electric services, initially between London Paddington and Hayes & Harlington.
These will begin in September, having originally been planned to start last month. This did not take place as there were no available ‘387/1s’ to cascade from GTR, because not enough Class 700s were available to introduce on the Thameslink network.
The new trains will be built by Bombardier at Derby Litchurch Lane. Testing of the first GWR Class 387 is already underway.
- For more details, read RAIL 802, published today (June 8).
- For more on the planned cascades, read RAIL 803, published on June 22.
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Andrewjgwilt1989 - 09/06/2016 21:05
c2c could be getting at least up to 20-25 Class 3xx's for extra capacity and what about Bombardier to build more Class 379's Electrostar's for Abellio Greater Anglia as they have only built 30 of the Class 379's used on the Liverpool St-Cambridge/King's Linn (West Anglia) and Liverpool St-Stansted Airport (Stansted Express) services which Bombardier could continue to build more Class 379 Electrostar trains for Liverpool St-Southend Victoria, Braintree, Witham, Southminster, Clacton-on-Sea, Ipswich, Manningtree, Harwich Town, Walton-on-the-Naze, Colchester, Colchester Town, Chelmsford and Norwich Great Eastern routes and between Liverpool St-Hertford East and Cambridge (West Anglia) services and working alongside the current 30 Class 379's that are used for Liverpool St-Stansted Airport (Stansted Express) services replacing the Class 321's and Class 317's.