West Country debut planned for 16 July
Moving Wheels
The first of the Italian-built five-car Class 802/0 BMUs (bi-mode multiple-units) were handed over to owner Eversholt and operator Great Western Railway on 9 February in a high-profile event held at the Hitachi assembly plant in Pistoia, in the Tuscany region of Italy.
The fleet of 22 five-car Class 802/0s and 14 nine-car Class 802/1s has been ordered by GWR primarily for services between London and the West Country, although they will also operate to Swansea, Oxford and Newbury. They will work alongside GWR’s Class 800 bi-modes, ordered under the Department for Transport’s Inter-city Express Programme (IEP) and already in service with the operator. The first ‘802s’ are planned to enter service on 16 July, with four sets working two diagrams (see panel).
In February, Hitachi and GWR had three Class 802s in the UK, trains T1 and T2 – five-car sets Nos 802001 and 802003, and T3 – nine-car set No 802101. All three were fully assembled at Hitachi’s Kasado factory in Japan and shipped to the UK for type approval and testing.
ITALIAN JOB
As Hitachi’s UK plant at Newton Aycliffe was at capacity, it was decided to construct the remaining Class 802s at Pistoia,…
