Avanti West Coast has confirmed to RailAdvent that their new trains, from Hitachi, will be designated as Class 805s and Class 807s.
Hitachi Rail Europe and Avanti West Coast signed a £350m deal to build and maintain 23 trains. The trains are set to be built at Hitachi's County Durham factory.
Both the 805s and 807s are due to be entering service from 2022. Thirteen five-car Class 805s will be built – the 805s will be bi-mode trains meaning they can run on both diesel and electric power, whereas the Class 807s will be electric only.
Being bi-mode trains, the Class 805s will operate between London Euston and Holyhead. Avanti West Coast trains will be powered by electricity on the West Coast Main Line, before switching to diesel power at Crewe for the journey on the North Wales Coast via Chester, Rhyl, Llandudno and Bangor. The Class 805s are said to be numbered 805001 – 805013.
Class 807s will operate between London Euston, Birmingham and Liverpool Lime Street. All 23 trains will mean that the Class 221 Super Voyager fleet of trains will be withdrawn from service by Avanti West Coast. These Class 807s are said to be numbered 807001 – 807010.
There are 453 seats on a 7-car service and 301 seats on a 5-car service increasing compacity compared to the Class 221s, which have 258 seats.
The Class 390 Pendolino trains will remain in service and will undergo a refurbishment programme.
These 125mph trains join the ever-growing numbers of Class 800/802s in Britain, with LNER, Hull Trains, TransPennine Express and Great Western Railway all operating them in passenger service as well as the new Class 810s set to enter service with East Midlands Railway.
First Trenitalia has already signed a Maintenance Agreement with Alstom to enable the trains to be maintained by a joint team from Hitachi and Alstom at the Oxley Depot in Wolverhampton.
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How will the non-tilting Hitachi trains co-exist with Pendolini? Also, Euston to Liverpool and North Wales services must surely be slower without tilt.
I can only assume the train class numbering department of the DfT have had a problem with working at home and lost the cohesion this august Department is known for!
And where’s Class 806?! Or is that being saved for whoever wants new IET rolling stocks.
But why was Class 804 cancelled out and East Midlands Railway (EMR) decided to renumber their new Intercity Express Trains (IET) AT300 rolling stocks as Class 810. Whilst Class 806, Class 808 and Class 809 aren’t used yet. And from Class 81x to Class 89x.
And also Class 702, Class 703, Class 704, Class 705, Class 706, Class 708 and Class 709 aren’t used yet and Class 71x to Class 79x. And First East Coast Trains have ordered the Class 803 that is to enter service from next year.
And Class 711 have also been cancelled out as c2c have renamed their Aventra rolling stocks to Class 720/6 which is scheduled to enter service from next year. And to replace the Class 387/3.
So far the new trains have been numbered in the Class 7xx and Class 8xx category are (Desiro City, Aventra, Flirt, METRO and Intercity Express Trains (IET)):
Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) Thameslink Class 700/0 & Class 700/1
South Western Railway (SWR) Class 701
SWR Class 707 (soon to be cascaded to Southeastern)
Transport for London (TfL) London Overground Class 710
GTR Great Northern Class 717
Greater Anglia Class 720/1 & Class 720/5
West Midlands Trains Class 730
Greater Anglia Class 745
Greater Anglia Class 755
Transport for Wales (TfW) Class 756
Merseyrail Class 777
Great Western Railway (GWR), TfW & Northern Class 769
Experimental Train Class 799
London North Eastern Railway (LNER) & GWR Class 800 (LNER Class 800/2/3 Azuma)
LNER Class 801 Azuma
GWR, Transpennine Express and Hull Trains Class 802 (TPE Class 802/2 Nova 1 and Hull Trains Class 802/3 Paragon)
What about naming them as:
•Nishi Kaigan
•West Coast Express
And the Class 221 Super Voyagers to be cascaded to Crosscountry to work with the Class 220 and Class 221 Voyager units. When the Class 805 Bi-Mode and Class 807 Electric IET units have been built and have started operating services on the West Coast Main Line.