Class 700s at Wildenrath, Germany. Photograph copyright and reproduced courtesy of railtechnologymagazine.com
Hello everyone, today I am proposing a Class 700 Desiro City and also an update to the London-Brighton route to include the new Thameslink Depot.
The Class 700 is a brand new EMU as part of the Thameslink programme which has included the rebuild of three stations and is half way through the rebuild of the fourth station. The Class 700 has two variants, these being Class 700/0 which is for eight car units and Class 700/1 which is for twelve car units.
Above: The first Class 700, 700106 arrives at Three Bridges. This unit is 12 cars.
Class 700s are fixed units which means there are no gangways. This means you can stand at one end of the train and see the other end, although the train better be empty for you to do this! The Class 700s feature wider doors for easier boarding and alighting.
Above: Mock up interior of the Class 700, showing the open gangways.
The Class 700s will be replacing Class 319s which are due to head to GWR once electification is complete, London Midland and also Northern Rail/Northern Electrics. They will also be replacing Class 377s which will be heading to Great Northern so the Class 317 and Class 321 cascade on Great Northern can Begin. The Class 387s will be heading to GWR once electrification is complete.
I personally quite like the Class 700s, although they would be better if Standard Class had tables, but it is a high capacity train after all.
The Class 700s have had purpose build depots at both Hornsey (London) and Three Bridges (West Sussex). The Three Bridges depot is located south of the station, and has a wide range of high tech equipment. I would like to see the current area of the route upgraded to how it is today with the addition of the new depot.
Above: A Class 377/5 unit passes the Thameslink Depot at Three Bridges.
I quite like the new depot, it's modern and will be helpful for keeping the wheels of the Class 700s moving!
Other train operating companies are looking into having Class 700 Desiro City trains. One of these are South West Trains, which are going to be receiving Class 707 Desiro City units in their Red Metro livery. The difference being a Class 700 and Class 707 is that the Class 707 is only 5 cars and also isn't dual voltage, it only has a 3rd rail shoe. South West Trains are going to receive 30 of these 5 car units which will be based at Wimbledon.
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Above: Class 707 artists impression at London Waterloo Station.
Thank you for reading!