Reduced GN workload for Class 365s

The number of Class 365s used by Govia Thameslink Railway will be reduced from December, although trains will remain leased to GTR until 2019, which is the date when their initial lease with Great Western Railway was supposed to have ended.

The introduction of 12-car Class 700/1s on Great Northern services between London King’s Cross and Peterborough has made the trains surplus to requirements. They were supposed to have transferred to GWR, but that move was scuppered by the delay to electrification and subsequent decision to order more Class 387/1s.

The ‘365s’ are four-car EMUs, and three (the equivalent of one 12-car ‘700’) have been ‘stood down’ already. It is planned that GTR will cycle the trains so that all have equal time in traffic.

Built in 1994-95, the ‘365s’ are dual-voltage trains, although when they were put through a major refurbishment in 2014, their owner Eversholt Rail Group had suggested that returning them to the former third-rail network was unlikely.

However, options for future use could yet include a return south of the Thames. RAIL understands that options are being investigated for the trains regarding future franchises. Only 16 ever operated using DC power (365501-365516), and they moved north in 2004.

RAIL understands that of the 40 Class 365s leased by GTR, the 19 even-numbered sets (365502/504/ 506/508/510/512/514/516/518/ 520/522/524/528/530/532/534/ 536/538/540) will eventually be disposed of by the operator, with the 21 uneven numbered sets (365501/503/505/507/509/511/ 513/515/517/519/521/523/525/ 527/529/531/533/535/537/539/ 541) remaining with GTR.

One set (365526) was written off following the Potters Bar accident in 2002.