IAN WALMSLEY shines the spotlight on the new fleet of Class 700 EMUs built by Siemens for the Thameslink route
As of late October, 77 of the 115 Class 700 trains had been delivered, more than enough to see off the Class 319s from the ‘classic’ Thameslink routes. Their first passenger duties on Great Northern routes began with peak hour Peterborough – King’s Cross services on 6 November.
The Class 700, built by Siemens and financed by Cross London Trains, is designed to move a lot of people as quickly and efficiently as possible, and that is what it does. Just like you can buy a VW Golf with different interiors, so it is with Desiro City, Siemens’ latest product for the increasingly crowded but still unique UK rail market. For Thameslink this means meeting the challenging requirements needed for an airport run, a metro and a commuter train – so the train is designed to maximise capacity, luggage space and throughput.
If you have never introduced a completely new train design you might wonder why, given Siemens’ reputation for topping the league tables, the latest technology is not collecting a bag full of Golden Spanners for reliability. If you are familiar with new train introductions it won’t come as…
