National Rail
National Rail in the United Kingdom is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies of England and Wales. The TOCs run the passenger services provided by the British Railways Board, from 1965 using the brand name British Rail. Northern Ireland, bordered by the Republic of Ireland, has a different system. National Rail services share a ticketing structure and inter-availability that do not extend to services which were not part of British Rail; the name and the accompanying double arrow symbol are trademarks of the Secretary of State for Transport. National Rail should not be confused with Network Rail. National Rail is a brand used to promote passenger railway services, providing some harmonisation for passengers in ticketing, while Network Rail is the organisation which owns and manages most of the fixed assets of the railway network, including tracks and signals; the two coincide where passenger services are run.
Most major Network Rail lines carry freight traffic and some lines are freight only. There are some scheduled passenger services on managed, non-Network Rail lines, for example Heathrow Express, which runs on Network Rail track; the London Underground overlaps with Network Rail in places. Twenty eight owned train operating companies, each franchised for a defined term by government, operate passenger trains on the main rail network in Great Britain; the Rail Delivery Group is the trade association representing the TOCs and provides core services, including the provision of the National Rail Enquiries service. It runs Rail Settlement Plan, which allocates ticket revenue to the various TOCs, Rail Staff Travel, which manages travel facilities for railway staff, it does not compile the national timetable, the joint responsibility of the Office of Rail Regulation and Network Rail. Since the privatisation of British Rail there is no longer a single approach to design on railways in Great Britain; the look and feel of signage and marketing material is the preserve of the individual TOCs.
However, National Rail continues to use BR's famous double-arrow symbol, designed by Gerald Burney of the Design Research Unit. It has been incorporated in the National Rail logotype and is displayed on tickets, the National Rail website and other publicity; the trademark rights to the double arrow symbol remain state-owned, being vested in the Secretary of State for Transport. The double arrow symbol is used to indicate a railway station on British traffic signs; the National Rail logo was introduced by ATOC in 1999, was used on the Great Britain public timetable for the first time in the edition valid from 26 September in that year. Rules for its use are set out in the Corporate Identity Style Guidelines published by the Rail Delivery Group, available on its website. "In 1964 the Design Research Unit—Britain’s first multi-disciplinary design agency founded in 1943 by Misha Black, Milner Gray and Herbert Read—was commissioned to breathe new life into the nation’s neglected railway industry".
The NR title is sometimes described as a "brand". As it was used by British Rail, the single operator before franchising, its use maintains continuity and public familiarity; the lettering used in the National Rail logotype is a modified form of the typeface Sassoon Bold. Some train operating companies continue to use the former British Rail Rail Alphabet lettering to varying degrees in station signage, although its use is no longer universal; the British Rail typefaces of choice from 1965 were Helvetica and Univers, with others coming into use during the sectorisation period after 1983. TOCs may use what they like: examples include Futura, Frutiger, a modified version of Precious by London Midland. Although TOCs compete against each other for franchises, for passengers on routes where more than one TOC operates, the strapline used with the National Rail logo is'Britain's train companies working together'. Several conurbations have their own metro or tram systems, most of which are not part of National Rail.
These include the London Underground, Docklands Light Railway, London Tramlink, Blackpool Tramway, Glasgow Subway, Tyne & Wear Metro, Manchester Metrolink, Sheffield Supertram, Midland Metro and Nottingham Express Transit. On the other hand, the self-contained Merseyrail system is part of the National Rail network, urban rail networks around Birmingham, Cardiff and West Yorkshire consist of National Rail services. London Overground is a hybrid: its services are operated via a concession awarded by Transport for London, are branded accordingly, but until 2010 all its routes used infrastructure owned by Network Rail. LO now possesses some infrastructure in its own right, following the reopening of the former London Underground East London line as the East London Railway. Since all the previous LO routes were operated by National Rail franchise Silverlink until November 2007, they have continued to be shown in the National Rail timetable and are still considered to be a part of National Rail.
Heathrow Express and Eurostar are not part of the National Rail network despite sharing of stations. Northern Ireland Railways were
London Victoria station
Victoria station known as London Victoria, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Victoria, in the City of Westminster, managed by Network Rail. Named after the nearby Victoria Street, the main line station is a terminus of the Brighton main line to Gatwick Airport and Brighton and the Chatham main line to Ramsgate and Dover via Chatham. From the main lines, trains can connect to the Catford Loop Line, Dartford Loop Line, the Oxted line to East Grinstead and Uckfield. Southern operates most commuter and regional services to south London and parts of east Surrey, while Southeastern operates trains to south east London and Kent. Gatwick Express trains run direct to Gatwick; the Underground station is on the Circle and District lines between Sloane Square and St. James's Park, the Victoria line between Pimlico and Green Park; the area around the station is an important interchange for other forms of transport: a local bus station is in the forecourt and Victoria Coach Station is nearby.
Victoria was built to serve both the Brighton and Chatham main lines, has always had a "split" feel of being two separate stations. The Brighton station opened in 1860 with the Chatham station following two years later, it replaced a temporary terminus at Pimlico and construction involved building the Grosvenor Bridge over the River Thames. It became popular as a London terminus, causing delays and requiring upgrades and rebuilding, it was well known for luxury Pullman train services and continental boat train trips and became a focal point for soldiers during World War I. Like other London termini, steam trains were phased out of Victoria by the 1960s, to be replaced by suburban electric and diesel multiple unit services. Despite the end of international services following the opening of the Channel Tunnel, Victoria still remains an important London station, its Underground facilities, in particular, suffer from overcrowding; the Gatwick Express service provides easy access between Central London and Gatwick Airport for international travellers.
The station complex is in Victoria in the City of Westminster south of the London Inner Ring Road. It is located south of Victoria Street, east of Buckingham Palace Road and west of Vauxhall Bridge Road. Several different railways lead into the station line by way of Grosvenor Bridge from the south west and south east, it is one of 19 stations managed by Network Rail. It has been a Grade II listed building since 1970. Victoria Coach Station is about 300 metres south-west of the railway stations, it serves all parts of the UK and mainland Europe. London Buses routes 2, 11, 13, 16, 24, 36, 38, 44, 52, 148, 170, 185, 211, 390, 507, C1, C2 and C10 and night routes N2, N11, N16, N38, N44, N73 and N136 serve the station at the Victoria bus station or neighbouring streets. By 1850, railways serving destinations to the south of London had three termini available – London Bridge, Bricklayers' Arms and Waterloo. All three were inconvenient for Central London as they terminated south of the river Thames, whereas the main centres of population and government were north of the river in the City of London, the West End and Westminster.
Victoria Station was designed in a piecemeal fashion to help address this problem for the London Brighton and South Coast Railway and the London Chatham and Dover Railway. It consisted of two adjacent main line railway stations which, from the viewpoint of passengers, were unconnected; the London and Brighton Railway terminus at London Bridge provided reasonable access to the City of London but was inconvenient for travellers to and from Westminster. As early as 1842 John Urpeth Rastrick had proposed that the railway should build a branch to serve the West End, but his proposal was unsuccessful. However, the transfer of the Crystal Palace from Hyde Park to Sydenham Hill between 1851 and 1854 created a major tourist attraction in the rural area south of London, the LB&SCR opened a branch line from the Brighton main line at Sydenham to the site in 1854. While this was under construction the West End of London and Crystal Palace Railway planned a line from Crystal Palace, to a new station at Battersea Wharf, at the southern end of the new Chelsea Bridge.
Despite its location, the new station was called Pimlico. It opened on 27 March 1858, but was much regarded as a temporary terminus, composed of a small number of wooden huts, positioned next to a proposed bridge over the Thames. Shortly afterwards the LB&SCR leased most of the lines of the new railway, built a further connection from Crystal Palace to the Brighton main line at Norwood Junction, thereby providing itself with a route into west London, although it was recognised that a terminus would be needed on the north side of the river. During the summer of 1857 a scheme for an independent "Grosvenor Basin Terminus" in the West End of London, "for the use of the Southern Railways of England" was mooted; the station was referred to as the "Grosvenor Terminus" but renamed Victoria as it was sited at the end of Victoria Street. Three other railway companies were seeking a terminus in Westminster: the Great Western, the London & North Western, the East Kent Railway; the first two had rail access to Battersea through their joint ownership of the West London Line with the LB&SCR.
In 1858, the EKR leased the remaining lines of the West End of London and Crystal Palace Railway from Shortlands railway station, negotiated temporary running powers over the lines acquired by the LB&SCR, pending the construction of its own line into west London. On 23 July 1859 these four companies together formed
Slade Green Depot
Slade Green Depot is a major railway depot in Slade Green, South East London. The depot is situated south of Slade Green railway station; the late-Victorian era hamlet of Slade Green consisted of two small farming communities until the South Eastern Railway's development of the North Kent Line from Strood and Dartford to London Bridge. After considering enlarging the existing depot at Bricklayers Arms, it was concluded that the growth in freight traffic necessitated a new depot. Land was purchased on Crayford marshes, with plans for a brick-built 10-road shed of 600 feet in length, with two of these feeding a repair shed located in the north eastern corner. With a budget of £55,000, construction started in April 1898, with an allowance for building 145 railway workers houses. On 1 May 1895 a triangular junction was opened with the Bexleyheath line; the shed called Whitehall, Erith was completed on 27 October 1899, under the South Eastern & Chatham Railway. Better equipped than major depots at Stewarts Lane or Ashford, the main building was fed by two 50 feet turntables, with a 150,000 imperial gallons water tank feeding out via a dedicated water softener.
The repair shed was equipped with two 5-tonne travelling cranes, allowing full reconstruction of all allocated engines. By the time the first locomotives arrived in November 1899, an external contractor had constructed the 158 houses of the new railway village; the total cost of the project was £74,500, in scale it was only second to Stewarts Lane, able to service 100 steam locomotives. But its opening allowed closure of the smaller sheds at Woolwich Deptford. Slades Green railway station was opened to serve the depot and adjoining community on 1 July 1900, by 1910 the full "railway village" of houses and ancillary community buildings had been completed. After grouping in 1923, the Southern Railway began the electrification of the former SE&CR suburban lines, but using the London and South Western Railway 660 V third-rail system, it was planned that the line to Dartford would be an early conversion, so the new trains required servicing. In 1924 the SR proposed reconstruction of Slade Green into a dedicated electric maintenance and repair unit.
A budget of £30,000 was allocated to convert the existing shed, added to by an adjoining heavy maintenance shed facing Dartford, capable of all repairs and maintenance. Work started including conversion of the roof to a flat form, were completed by the end of 1925, with electric services to Dartford commencing on 6 June 1926. In 1935, along with Orpington, the site became home to the first mechanical carriage washer in the UK. With the introduction in 1952 of the BR Class 415 4EPB units, under the Southern Region of British Railways, in June 1954 the shed was extended by 100 feet at its London end to accommodate a complete 10-carriage unit; the bricks purposefully replicated the original 1899 building, while the new roof had a hump to allow for better rain water removal. On completion, on 1 August 1953, the depot and adjacent railway station became Slade Green. With the introduction of the Class 465 Networker and Class 466 Networker fleet, it was proposed in 1990 by British Railways to demolish the 1925 shed and build a brand new eight road structure.
Allocated a budget of £20million, the new maintenance depot was opened on 8 April 1991, with original BR green 4EPB No. 5001 and a cab mock-up of No. 465001. The new building still had the facilities to carry out heavy repairs on the 1952 slam-door 4EPB stock, a function it fulfilled until the final 4EPB withdrawals in March 1995. Today the site is owned by Network Rail and operated by Southeastern Trains, providing berthing for a range of different EMUs, it consists of the Networker shed to the northside, on the other side of the Main line associated sidings to the south, which are linked by a pedestrian overbridge. EMU types that are stabled there include Class 465 Networker, Class 466 Networker, Class 375 Express Electrostar, Class 375 Outer Suburban Electrostar and Class 376 Suburban Electrostar EMUs. Marsden, Colin J.. BR Depots. Motive power recognition. 6. Ian Allan Ltd. ISBN 9780711017191. OCLC 18685680
Docklands Light Railway
The Docklands Light Railway is an automated light metro system opened in 1987 to serve the redeveloped Docklands area of East London, England. It reaches north to Stratford, south to Lewisham across the River Thames, west to Tower Gateway and Bank in the City of London financial district, east to Beckton, London City Airport, to Woolwich Arsenal south of the river; the system uses minimal staffing at major interchange stations. Similar proposals have been made for the Tube; the DLR is operated under a franchise awarded by Transport for London to KeolisAmey Docklands, a joint venture between transport operator Keolis and infrastructure specialists Amey plc. It was run for over 17 years by Serco Docklands, part of the Serco Group; the system is owned by Docklands Light Railway Ltd, part of the London Rail division of Transport for London. In 2017/18 the DLR carried 119.6 million passenger journeys, down from 122.3m the previous year. It has been extended several times and further extensions are under consideration.
The docks east of Central London began to decline in the early 1960s as cargo became containerised. They had been connected to the national railway network via the London and Blackwall Railway, closed in 1966 for lack of traffic; the opening of the Tilbury container docks, further east in Essex rendered them redundant, in 1980 the government gained control of the now-derelict area. As early as 1972, consideration was given to. Travis Morgan & Partners were commissioned by the London Docklands Study Team to consider the issue, they proposed, among other recommendations, that a "minitram" people-mover system capable of carrying up to 20 people in each unit should be constructed to connect the Docklands with the planned Fleet line tube railway terminus at Fenchurch Street railway station. The Greater London Council formed a Docklands Joint Committee with the Boroughs of Greenwich, Newham and Tower Hamlets in 1974 to undertake the redevelopment of the area. A light railway system was envisaged, terminating either at Tower Hill Underground station or at Fenchurch Street, but both options were seen as too expensive.
Nonetheless, in 1976 another report proposed a conventional tube railway for the area and London Transport obtained Parliamentary powers to build a line from Charing Cross railway station to Fenchurch Street, Surrey Docks, the Isle of Dogs, North Greenwich and Custom House to Woolwich Arsenal. This was intended to be the second stage of the Fleet line –, renamed the Jubilee line, the first stage of which opened in 1979 from Stanmore to Charing Cross. However, when the Conservative Party came to power in May 1979 under Margaret Thatcher, the plans to extend the Jubilee line were halted and the new government insisted that a lower-cost option should be pursued; the government created the London Docklands Development Corporation in July 1981 to coordinate the redevelopment of the Docklands. The need to provide a cheap public transport solution led to it commissioning London Transport to evaluate a number of light rail options; the core of the route ran alongside the Great Eastern line out of London and south along the former London & Blackwall Railway line through the Isle of Dogs.
Three terminus options were proposed at the west end, at Tower Hill and Aldgate East. The Tower Hill option would have required a low-level interchange to be constructed alongside the existing Underground station, but this would have been a costly venture; the Minories option, a high-level station on the site of the old Minories railway station, was selected and became the current Tower Gateway DLR terminus. Aldgate East would have been the most ambitious of all of the options, as it envisaged a low-level connection with the District line that would have allowed DLR trains to run on Underground tracks to a variety of central London destinations. However, it became apparent that there was no capacity on the existing network for integrating the DLR into the Underground. Two southern terminus options were put forward, at Cubitt Town and Tiller Road, on the west side of Millwall Dock, with two possible routes to reach them. A "western" route would have run from the Westferry station alongside West Ferry Road via Cuba Street either terminating at Tiller Road or continuing over Millwall Docks Cut to a terminus at Cubitt Town.
The "central" option required the West India Docks to be infilled or bridged and would run down the middle of the peninsula, through what was at the time an area of derelict warehouses. This latter option was chosen, though the 1981 London Transport report warned that without extensive development around Canary Wharf the area would be "very isolated with poor traffic prospects" – as indeed it was, for a number of years; the contract for the initial system was awarded to GEC Mowlem in 1984 and the system was constructed from 1985 to 1987 at a cost of £77 million. The line was formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 30 July 1987, passenger services began on 31 August; the initial system comprised two routes, from Tower Stratford to Island Gardens. It was elevated on disused railway viaducts or new concrete viaducts, adopted disused surface railway formations between Poplar and Stratford; the trains were automated, controlled by computer, had no driver.
Mid-Kent line
The Mid-Kent line is a British railway line running from Courthill Loop North junction to Hayes railway station in the London Borough of Bromley. Despite its name, none of the line is in the present-day county of Kent. Services commence at Cannon Street. London Bridge – North Kent Junction, Bermondsey: The pioneer London and Greenwich Railway opened its line on 8 February 1836; this section is built on a brick viaduct North Kent Junction – Lewisham: opened 30 July 1849 as the North Kent Railway, now called the North Kent line. Most of the railway here is in cutting with the four tracks passing through St Johns railway station, the two northernmost leading into Lewisham station. Lewisham – New Beckenham: opened 1 January 1857 as the Mid-Kent line; this opening created a junction at Lewisham. New Beckenham – Elmers End: opened on 1 April 1864 as part of an extension of the Mid-Kent line to Addiscombe Elmers End – Hayes: this section was built by the West Wickham & Hayes Railway, but was sold to the South Eastern Railway on opening day, 29 May 1882 All services along the line are operated by Southeastern.
The standard off-peak service is two trains per hour each way between London Charing Cross and Hayes, non-stop between London Bridge and Ladywell, two tph between London Cannon Street and Hayes, calling at all stations via Lewisham. In addition, there is one train per day from Charing Cross to Beckenham Junction; the existing Mid-Kent line consists of three sections built at different times. The Mid Kent Railway was built by the Mid-Kent and North Kent Junction Railway and was opened on 1 January 1857 from Lewisham as far as Beckenham Junction. From opening the line was worked by the South Eastern Railway and served new stations at Ladywell, Catford Bridge, Lower Sydenham and Beckenham. Seven years the MK&NKJR built an extension from a new junction station at New Beckenham to Croydon which again was operated by the SER; the line diverged from the 1857 line to the west of Beckenham Junction and a new station was built in the junction area. This was re-located northwards two years later. In September 1866 a short spur was opened from the north end of Ladywell station to the opened South Eastern Main Line avoiding Lewisham station, which it joins at Parks Bridge Junction.
The Elmers End – Hayes section was built by the West Wickham & Hayes Railway, but was sold to the South Eastern Railway in 1881, opening on 29 May 1882. Intermediate stations were opened at West Wickham. Clock House station was opened in June 1890. In 1898 the South Eastern Railway and its bitter rivals the London Chatham and Dover Railway agreed to work as one railway company under the name of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway and thus the stations became an SECR stations; the original Lower Sydenham station was closed and moved half a mile south in 1906 in an attempt to develop a new area for housing. On 14 June 1913 members of the Suffragettes movement planted a bomb, discovered in the ladies waiting room at Eden Park railway station; the clockwork mechanism had stopped working and so it didn’t go off. This event followed the death of Emily Wilding Davison six days earlier after her attempt to stop the King’s horse at The Derby. Following the Railways Act 1921, the Mid-Kent line came under the control of the Southern Railway.
The line was electrified with other SECR suburban routes in 1926. Hayes, West Wickham and Elmers End stations were all damaged by enemy bombs during the Second World War. After World War II and following nationalisation on 1 January 1948, the line became part of British Railways Southern Region. In 1956 platform lengths were extended to accommodate 10-car trains. During the 1960s the local goods yards at Catford Bridge, Lower Sydenham, Clock House, Elmers End, West Wickham and Hayes all closed as did the gas works internal railway at Lower Sydenham. Colour light signalling was introduced south of Ladywell on 4 April 1971; the line was converted to colour light operation in September 1975 under the control of London Bridge Signalling Centre. The old mechanical signal boxes closed at this time. Upon sectorisation in 1982, the line came under the control of the London & South East sector, renamed Network SouthEast in 1986. Goods services were withdrawn in 1964 with the exception of Beckenham Junction which survived until 1982.
During the planning of the London Underground Fleet line, now the Jubilee line, it was suggested that the Mid-Kent line be taken over. However a more northerly alignment was instead taken; the section from Elmers End to Addiscombe was taken over by Tramlink operations. It has been proposed that the Bakerloo line will be extended from its current terminus at Elephant & Castle to Hayes via Camberwell and Lewisham or Honor Oak. More so Network Rail's Kent Route Utilisation Strategy, published in 2010 envisages the ultimate incorporation of the Hayes Line into an extended Bakerloo line. Furthermore, if this were to happen, services on the Hayes line would be replaced by London Underground services and a most-likely withdrawal of National Rail services; the Beckenham Junction branch will be incorporated into the new extended line meaning an all-day service. The driving force for this change is that Network Rail would like the train paths freed up for services from the South East
British Rail Class 375
The British Rail Class 375 is an electric multiple unit train, built by Bombardier Transportation at Derby Litchurch Lane Works, from 1999 to 2005. The class form part of the Electrostar family of units, which includes classes 357, 376, 377, 378, 379 and 387, is the most numerous type of EMU introduced since the privatisation of British Rail; these units form the basis of Southeastern's mainline fleet. These trains are owned by Eversholt Rail Group and leased to Southeastern for operation from London to Kent and parts of East Sussex; the first batch of 30 trains were fitted with both a pantograph and third-rail shoes for dual voltage, where the remainder of these trains have one coach in each unit with a recess where the pantograph could be fitted, allowing for future conversion to run on AC power from overhead lines. Although the units are operated on 750 V DC lines only, the class is numbered in the 3xx series which refers to AC operation; the option is available for the 375/6 units to be leased to a network which operates on 25 kV AC overhead lines.
Southern's Class 375 units have since been converted to Class 377. The Class 375 is the principal train used by Southeastern, replaced the life-expired slam door Mark 1 derived stock which came to an end of their useful lives on mainline services to Kent and East Sussex and which did not meet up with modern health and safety requirements. All the Southeastern units have been converted from Tightlock to Dellner couplers, but unlike the Southern fleet, the Southeastern units were not reclassified as 377s; the 375/8 and 375/9 sub-classes were built with Dellner couplers from new, a different pattern of headlight. The only noticeable difference from the Class 377 is that none of the 375s have an external CCTV; the Class 375 has GPS-based Selective door opening, so if the train is too long for a particular station, the doors which are overhanging the platform will not open. From August 2011, Southeastern has begun a minor refresh of the interiors of the units, with a full re-trim of the seating in the company's new purple moquette and the addition of new CCTV cameras.
The seats in first class have now been fitted with larger, more prominent seat bolstering to distinguish them from the standard class seats and the first class areas have been re-carpeted. In May 2015, unit 375301 was moved from Ramsgate Depot to Derby Litchurch Lane Works for a full refurbishment. On 16 May 2015, it was returned to the Kent depot wearing a new livery, similar to, but not based on the'Highspeed' livery carried by the high speed Class 395 EMU, with a more vibrant shade of blue on the saloon doors and bolder stripes to highlight First Class and Disabled areas. Internally, the unit has received new carpets and lino flooring, new table top covers and the grab poles, side panels and table legs have been re-powder coated; the existing seat covers have been retained, but were dry cleaned to provide a brighter, cleaner interior. This work will involve combining the two separate First Class sections on four car units into one section in the end of MOSL coach, it is intended for all class 375 units to receive this refurbishment between 2015 and 2018.
The original plan was for the first 50 units to be refurbished at Bombardier in Derby and the remaining units would be transferred for refurbishment at Bombardier Ilford. This plan did not go ahead and the 375/8s and 375/9s have started refurbishment at Derby. On 19 September 2015 the last 375/3 unit no 375310 went to Derby for refurbishment; the following week on 26 September the first 375/6 went to Derby for refurbishment. The final 375 to receive the refurbishment and gain the new blue Southestern livery was 375 920, returned to Ramsgate depot on 28 April 2018. On 8 November 2010, a passenger train operated by unit 375 711 overran Stonegate station, on the Hastings Line in East Sussex, due to low railhead adhesion in the leaf fall season and maintenance errors in respect of the train's sanding apparatus; the train continued to slide beyond the station for 2 miles 36 chains. Following the incident, Southeastern reduced the interval that the sand hoppers were to be refilled from seven days to five days.
On 24 November 2014, the front carriage of unit 375 611 caught fire from faulty electrical insulation pots at Charing Cross Platform 6. There were no injuries, though both the track and leading carriage required repairs, part of the rail being melted. On 26 July 2015, units 375 703 and 375 612 formed a train that collided with a herd of cattle on the line at Godmersham, between Wye and Chilham, Kent; the leading carriage of 375 703 was derailed. There were no injuries amongst crew on board. On 5 January 2018, unit 375 815 hit a fallen tree near Herne Bay. Though damage was sustained to the leading carriage, there were no injuries. On 24 October 2018, shortly before midnight unit 375 301 leading 375 906 hit a car abandoned on a level crossing between Teynham and Faversham; the car caught fire, driver subsequently arrested, while the leading carriage of 375 301 sustained damage to its corridor and coupling. Charing Cross/Cannon Street – Tunbridge Wells and Hastings fast services Charing Cross/Cannon Street – Dover Priory and Ramsgate via Ashford International.
Victoria – Ramsgate and Dover Priory via Chatham Cannon Street - Ramsgate/Broadstairs via Chatham Electrostars work the following outer suburban Southeastern routes interchangeably with Class 465/9 units: Charing Cross/Cannon Street – Tunbridge Wells Victoria – Canterbury West, via Ashford International and Maidstone East, Victoria - Dover Priory via Denmark Hill and Gillingham Victoria - Canterbury East/Favers
British Rail Class 395
The British Rail Class 395 Javelin is a dual-voltage electric multiple unit built for high-speed commuter services on High Speed 1 and elsewhere on the Integrated Kent Franchise. The six-car trains were built in Japan by Hitachi and operate at a maximum speed of 140 mph under 25 kV AC overhead electrification on High Speed 1, 100 mph on 750 V DC third rail supply on conventional lines; the use of the high-speed trains as part of the transport infrastructure for the Olympic Park formed part of the original bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics. The service was named the Olympic Javelin Shuttle, was the origin for the Javelin nickname; the Olympic services began 28 July 2012. In December 2003, formal approval was given to run domestic services on the planned Channel Tunnel Rail Link in Kent, England. Preliminary consultations for a new franchise including CTRL, for rolling stock to operate the'CTRL Domestic' services were to begin in 2004. In 2005 the proposed high-speed services were combined with those from the former South Eastern rail franchise to form the Integrated Kent franchise.
In October 2004, Hitachi was announced as the preferred bidder to supply high-speed trains for the CTRL services, in June 2005 the £250 million contract was signed with Hitachi Europe Ltd as supplier of 28 trainsets, with HSBC Rail acting as the financier, with an expected service date of 2009. In November 2005 the Department for Transport announced Govia as the new operator of the IKF; the contract was Hitachi's first rail vehicle sold to a European customer. It had worked with HSBC Rail and UK rail authorities between 2002 and 2003 to demonstrate the suitability and conformance of Hitachi's traction system with the UK rail network, including test of the use of AC induction motors, Electromagnetic compatibility tests. Construction of the CTRL was complete in November 2007. By 2008, the planned'CTRL Domestic' services from London St Pancras to Gravesend, Canterbury West and Folkestone Central, via Ashford, had been expanded in scope to include services to Medway Towns, East Kent and Dover. A twenty-ninth train was added to the order agreement by franchise holder Southeastern to provide additional capacity.
The contract for the trains included maintenance of the trains. The Ashford Train Depot was formally opened on 2 October 2007, constructed on the site of the Ashford Down Yard Carriage Sidings. A second building housed a wheel lathe from Sculfort. Other facilities included carriage washing plant, a 25 kV OHL test track, sidings for rolling stock. A Class 395 train simulator supplied by Corys TESS was acquired for use at Southeastern's training centre in Ashford for driver training, Southeastern's co-parent company SNCF assisted with high-speed driver training; the DEPCO consortium updated Ramsgate train depot for the IKF with facilities including storage sidings for the Class 395 trains and light maintenance facilities. Pre-shipping factory tests included static and dynamic load tests and braking tests, including tests on a 750 V DC third-rail system specially installed at Hitachi's test track; the first train was delivered from Japan to Southampton Docks on 23 August 2007. Homologation testing was undertaken by Serco, SNCF International assisted with testing of KVB and TVM 430 signalling systems, with speeds of 240 km/h attained in January 2008.
After successful testing of four units shipping of the main production tranche began in December 2008. The final three trains arrived in the UK in August 2009, with the final train delivered to Southeastern on 11 December 2009; the performance metric of 4,000 miles fault-free running was achieved six months ahead of schedule, allowing a'preview' service to be offered by June 2009 between London St Pancras and Ashford via Ebbsfleet, allowing further train testing, which achieved a 99% punctuality rate in the first month of operations. In September 2009 preliminary services to the Kent coast began. Preview services on the North Kent line began in November 2009. In September 2010, it was reported that passengers were experiencing alarming'wobbles' on tunnel sections; the problem was described by Southeastern as non-dangerous, trains were fitted with dampers to prevent the problem from recurring. A full regular service commenced on 13 December 2009. Initial services included a half-hourly north Kent service to and from St Pancras, via Stratford, Gravesend, Rochester, Gillingham and Sittingbourne to Faversham, a half-hourly service to East Kent via Stratford, Ashford with one train continuing to Margate via Canterbury West and Broadstairs, with the other to Dover via Folkestone West and Folkestone Central.
Seven million journeys were made in the first year of operation,The introduction of the trains was successful, with good reliability and passenger satisfaction figures: the new high-speed services caused an increase in passenger numbers above that being experienced on the Kent network. On introduction timetabled journeys to London from Ebbsfleet were reduced from 51 to 18 minutes, whilst trains using the entire length of High Speed 1 had timetabled journeys reduced by ar
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