Porterbrook Leasing has been selected as the preferred supplier to provide the capital funding for Southern’s new Class 387/1 electric multiple units (EMUs).
Southern has procured 116 vehicles from Bombardier, which are currently under construction at the manufacturer’s Litchurch Lane site, to operate on Thameslink routes from January 2015.
The initial £172 million order includes an option for 140 additional units, giving the contract a potential value of £385 million.
The Class 387/1 EMUs will free up Class 319 units to be cascaded to newly electrified routes in the North West. When the new Class 700 units from Siemens enter service in 2016, the Class 387s will then also be cascaded across the network.
Porterbrook’s commercial director, Keith Howard, said: “We will be working towards completion of the purchase of these new trains in the next few weeks which will be a further addition to our fleet of Electrostar vehicles.
“We welcome this investment opportunity and hope that there will be more to come for new and existing rolling stock over the coming years.”
What about Bombardier to build more Class 379 electrostars for Abellio Greater Anglia. Just like they built these trains for Cambridge to London service and Stansted Express service. Bombardier have built the best electrostar trains for London and the southeast on Thameslink, Southeastern, Southern and c2c lines. AGA may need more Class 379’s in the near future.