Vivarail has announced that the first fleet of Class 230 trains have all been safely delivered to Bletchley depot ahead of entering service.
The class 230s will be operated by London Northwestern Railway.
Units 230003, 004 and 005 will be in passenger service on the Marston Vale Line.
Vivarail's Class 230 trains are converted London Underground D78 stock trains that run on diesel power. Along with the Marston Vale line, these Class 230 trains will also be running in Wales under the new Wales and Borders franchise.
230003, along with 004 and 005 were meant to be in passenger service in 2018, but were delayed.
The Class 230 trains will run alongside the Class 150s and 153 that currently operate on the line.
The Marston Vale line runs between Bletchley and Bedford in England. It was formerly part of the Varsity Line between Oxford and Cambridge.
The line is operated by West Midlands Trains, who operate as London Northwestern Railway.
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They’re diesel/electric, not battery power. I’m test driving them at the moment so that’s a fact!!
Hi Colin,
Yes you are correct, the 230s are currently a DEMU, but may be battery power in the future 🙂
I shall add that in for you
Regards
Michael
“Vivarail’s Class 230 trains are converted London Underground D78 stock trains that run on battery power.”
Really? – that’s news to WMT… You might want to try a bit of research, even Wikipedia has it right!
Do you know when these will be in service. Hopefully on Monday or this week. Or in early March. About time that London Northwestern Railway should introduce the Class 230s in service on the Marston Vale Line.
West Midlands Railway might inherit some of the Class 230s to work with the Class 172s cascaded from London Overground used on the Gospel Oak-Barking Line to operate on the Leamington Spa-Coventry-Nuneaton route. If West Midlands Trains were to order couple Class 230s to work on not just on the Marston Vale Line but also on the Leamington Spa-Coventry & Coventry-Nuneaton service.
All we know is that passenger service is ‘soon’ and are awaiting more news on them!
Possibly in June or July I think.