Govia Thameslink Railway begins cascade of Class 377s and 387s

Govia Thameslink Railway has outlined its Class 377/387 Electrostar cascade plan, as the 30 Class 379s acquired via Porterbrook begin to enter traffic.

The Class 379s will be allocated to Hornsey and used on the Great Northern lines out of King’s Cross to Peterborough and King’s Lynn.

The GN lines had previously had 38 dual-voltage Class 387s (32 Class 387/1s and six Class 387/3s), while 27 Class 387/2s were used by GTR on its Gatwick Express London Victoria to Brighton route.

387101-114 will remain on the GN lines, but 387115-129/172- 174/301-306 will move to GTR’s Southern operation.

This in turn will allow GTR to release 13 750V DC-only Class 377/1s (377121-133) to move to Southeastern.

Of the 65 Class 387s, the plan is for 12 to be in use with GN and 46 with Southern and Gatwick Express, which allows seven units to be stopped for overhaul and/ or European Train Control System (ETCS) fitment.

Already 387123/126/128/129/172-174 have moved to Southern and 377121/122 to Southeastern, but other transfers are expected to happen relatively quickly.

When the full Electrostar cascade programme is completed, it means GTR will have 203 Class 377s, 30 Class 379s and 65 Class 387s (a total of 1,198 vehicles), while Southeastern will have 112 Class 375 and 36 Class 377s (582 vehicles).

Southeastern also has Class 376/395/707 electric multiple units, while GTR also has Class 700/717 EMUs.

By Pip Dunn