Govia orders Class 387s for Gatwick Express route

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Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) has placed an order for more Class 387 Electrostar trains with Bombardier.

From Bombardier’s site in Derby, the manufacturer will supply 27 Class 387/2 units to replace the current Class 442 sets which has been operating Gatwick Express services since 2008.

The £145.2 million order builds on an earlier contract with Bombardier for a fleet of new Class 387/1s – the first of which has now been delivered – to replace the Class 319 sets.

From May 2015, the new Class 387/1 trains will be introduced between Bedford and Brighton. These units will then be cascaded across the network when the Siemens-built Class 700 fleet enters passenger service in 2016.

Passenger will be able to ride the first of the new Gatwick Express 387/2s in 2016.

Rail Minister Claire Perry said: “These new British-built trains are great news for passengers and a boost for the economy. They will transform journeys on the Gatwick Express and Thameslink routes and safeguard jobs at Bombardier’s Derby factory.”

Porterbrook has been announced as the financier of both the Class 387/1 and 387/2 fleets.

2 COMMENTS

  1. So Bombardier Transportation Ltd based in Derby, East Midlands are to build 30x Class 387/1 for Thameslink and 30x Class 387/2 for Gatwick Express with a possibility of build 20x Class 377/8’s for Southern and Class 379/1/2’s (80x 379/1 & 70x 379/2) for Abellio Greater Anglia to cascade the Class 94x 321’s & 72x 317’s.

    Bombardier Electrostar trains are one of the best and most reliable fleets for London & the southeast and could also be used as far as East Anglia, West Anglia and East Midlands (Bedford & Peterborough) aswell serving the orbital route in Greater London by London Overground.

    I think that Bombardier has been inovated with UK’s railways with building their Turbostar diesel trains and the London Underground S8 and S7 S-Stocks for the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines and the 2009 stocks for the Victoria line.

  2. No, Bombardier is building the following

    29x 387/1 for Thameslink
    27x 387/2 for Gatwick Express

    There is no such train as the 377/8 as it was an early unofficial class used to talk about the 387/1 fleet. Bombardier have stated that the 387/2 will be the final Electrostar orders with Aventra offered going forward. So no they won’t be building your fantasy 379/1 & /2 fleets. There is of course the rumors of an DMU build using the 20m Electrostar mkII bodyshell (379/0) but no more EMUs.

    The Electrostar fleets ARE NOT the most reliable fleet at all if you actually look at the figures. The Desiro fleets perform much better in yearly industry wide comparisons. As for London Overground fleets, they are very low in the reliability stakes indeed and IIRC correctly some of the worst performing Electrostars. Do yourself a favor and buy the January issue of Modern Railways and see just how the fleets compare and you’ll find that Bombardier is not the leader, even with the greatest number of new build units its a second rate success when it comes to dependability.

    As for Bombardier being innovated with Turbostar, you do realise that Bombardier didn’t invent the Turbostar or Electrostar designs but brought the company that developed the platform in privatisations. The Electrostar design can be traced back to BR designs in the early 1990’s if you bother to look into it.

    Please stop flooding every single website with your ideas for masses of Electrostar fleets that have no basis in reality.

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