Rolling stock

Greater Anglia’s £3.8m Class 321 refurb nears completion

04.09.17: The £3.8m refurbishment of 54 Greater Anglia Class 321s is fast nearing its completion at the operator’s Clacton-on-Sea depot. The fleet of 321s, which run between Liverpool Street and Southend, Chelmsford, Colchester and Ipswic...

Thameslink replaces last of 30-year-old Class 319 fleet

01.09.17: Thameslink has reached a major milestone this week after replacing the last of its Class 319 fleet with the new Siemens-built Class 700s. GTR, which operates Thameslink between Bedford, Brighton, Wimbledon, Sutton and Sevenoaks, said that o...

Sneak peek at new £150m Caledonian Sleeper carriages

31.08.17: Caledonian Sleeper has given passengers a special sneak peek of its £150m fleet of state-of-the-art carriages that are currently under construction in Spain via a new dedicated website. The website allows visitors to get an exclusive...

First new Caledonian Sleeper rolling stock arrives at Velim test track

24.08.17: New rolling stock for Caledonian Sleeper services have reached a milestone today as operator Serco said that the trains have arrived at a test track in the Czech Republic to undergo key testing for a number of weeks. The first of the 75 Mk...

Virgin Azuma crosses Scottish border for first time in test run

17.08.17: Virgin’s Class 800 Azuma trains have this week made the journey beyond the Scottish border for the first time. The inaugural run north of the border between London and Edinburgh was done as part of a testing programme by Hitachi, who...

Greater Anglia unveils more images of bi-mode and intercity FLIRT trains

11.08.17: Greater Anglia has today given passengers a glimpse at what the brand new trains that will operate on its intercity, regional and Stansted Express services will look like. The computer-generated photos show more detail of what the FLIRT tra...

TPE launches first of refurbished Class 185 fleet

03.08.17: TransPennine Express (TPE) has this week launched the first refurbished train as part of the overhaul of its entire Class 185 fleet. The rolling stock is currently going through a phased refurbishment programme, and the operator says that o...

Vivarail secures funding to further develop D-Train technology

26.07.17: New funding has today been announced by Vivarail to develop the Class 230 DEMU battery-powered D-Train. The cash will come from the Accelerating Innovation in Rail grant competition, run by Innovate UK, which recognises the progress the com...

Five more Class 319 bi-modes expected in Wales next year

24.07.17: The Welsh government has this week announced that it will add five extra four-carriage trains to boost rolling stock provision and capacity in the country. The Class 319 flex bi-mode trains have been funded with £1.9m investment from...

Adaptable carriage offers new revenue opportunity for TOCs

17.07.17: Zane van Romunde, transport sector lead at 42 Technology, explains why Adaptable Carriage could be a game changer in encouraging more online deliveries to be transported by train rather than via the UK’s increasingly congested road network...

New centres of excellence for rail innovation

13.07.17: Clive Roberts, director of the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education, Simon Iwnicki, director of the University of Huddersfield’s Institute of Railway Research (IRR), and William Powrie, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering an...

Expanding an unprecedented level of style and comfort

13.07.17: At the end of May, Eurostar introduced its new e320 train on the London-Brussels route. Rob Haycocks talks to RTM about what passengers can expect from the new units and how they differ from the company’s original fleet. Our state-of...

Bodyshells of new Northern rolling stock ‘coming together’

12.07.17: Northern have updated passengers on the progress being made on the 98 new trains being built for the operator by Spanish company CAF. The rolling stock will be made up of 281 carriages, and split into 43 electric and 55 diesel powered train...

Greater Anglia finalises new Stadler FLIRT train designs

10.07.17: Greater Anglia has finalised designs for its new Stadler rolling stock that will be phased into service from 2019-20. A month ago, the company unveiled what the new FLIRT trains would look like, and opened up the plans for a consultation so...

Elizabeth Line trains first to run without yellow front ends since steam era

27.06.17: The new Elizabeth Line trains, the first of which was introduced on the London network last week, will be the first fleet to run on Britain’s mainline railways without a yellow front end in the post-steam era. Early last year, the RSS...