Autumn start for Great Northern ‘700s’

Class 700s will enter traffic on the Great Northern in the next few weeks.

Govia Thameslink Railway told RAIL on August 30 this was planned for the autumn, although many factors could alter the introduction date. RAIL understands the ‘700s’ will enter service from October 2.

The introduction is planned in two stages. Initially two 12-car Class 700/1s will replace two sets of three four-car Class 365s on trains between Peterborough and London King’s Cross (the ‘365s’ running as 12-car formations).

Early next year, eight eight-car Class 700/0s will replace ‘365s’ on the GN. Beyond that, details have yet to be confirmed. Once the Class 700s are introduced, GTR intends to retain 19 of the 40 Class 365s, with the rest destined to be returned to Eversholt Rail Group.

Meanwhile, the latest two 12-car Class 700/1s from Siemens arrived in the UK at the beginning of September.

This takes the number of ‘700s’ in the UK to 74, from an order of 115. All will be delivered from Germany by May 2018, ahead of the introduction of 24 trains per hour through the Thameslink Core from December 2018.

The latest to arrive were 700139 on September 4, followed by 700134 on September 6. Like all the ‘700s’ they were built in Krefeld (Germany), and following testing at Wildenrath they were moved to the UK for further testing and commissioning. Both were taken to Hornsey.

This means there are now 28 12-car Class 700/1s in the UK (336 vehicles) and 46 eight-car Class 700/0s (368), giving a total of 704 vehicles from an order of 1,140. .

Of these units, all 46 Class 700/0s have been commissioned for passenger use, while 16 of the Class 700/1s are in traffic, with 700116 the first of this year’s 12-car deliveries to enter traffic.

The Class 700s were ordered by Department for Transport in 2011, with the first delivered for testing in 2015. They are used by Govia Thameslink Railway, and 700109 was the first into passenger traffic in June 2016.