WITH CLASS 387s ALREADY IN SERVICE AND CLASS 800s COMING SOON, THE GREAT WESTERN ROUTE MODERNISATION IS BEARING FRUIT. GWR MANAGING DIRECTOR MARK HOPWOOD UPDATES EDITOR JAMES ABBOTT ON PROGRESS WITH THE PROGRAMME
IN FOCUS: GREAT WESTERN
Class 800 – the bi-mode Inter-city Express Programme (IEP) train from Hitachi – is set to enter service on the Great Western Railway network later this year. Seven five-car sets are due to be ready in the autumn. Two 10-car trains will then be put into service every day, leaving a generous contingency of three spare units while experience is gained with the new traction.
‘The diagrams will be a mix of Swansea, Cardiff and Bristol workings, with one Taunton via Bristol service to give drivers a wide range of routes with the new trains’ explains GWR MD Mark Hopwood. As the units are equipped with diesel engines as well as pantographs, late-running with the GW electrification programme can be accommodated by the new trains.
Since a decision by the Department for Transport to uprate the diesel engines in the contract with IEP owner Agility Trains, the Class 800s are able to keep pace with HST timetables on the greater proportion of non-electrified track they will now use. T…
