The British Rail Class 231 ''FLIRT'' is a class of eleven diesel-electric multiple units which have been built for Transport for Wales by Swiss rolling stock manufacturer

Stadler Rail Stadler Rail is a Swiss manufacturer of railway rolling stock, with an emphasis on regional train multiple units and trams. It is also focused on niche products, such as being one of the last European manufacturers of rack railway rolling stock ...

. They are expected to enter service in January 2023.

History

The previous Wales & Borders rail franchise operator, KeolisAmey Wales, commenced on 14 October 2018. Although KeolisAmey was removed as the franchise operator and replaced by an operator of last resort Transport for Wales Rail owned by the Welsh Government, the scheduled full fleet replacement will still commence. The units began testing in Switzerland in July 2021 and in November 2021 the first two units were delivered to Cardiff Canton depot.

Operators

Transport for Wales

When in service, Transport for Wales' Class 231 units will operate services between and , as well as and

Ebbw Vale Ebbw Vale (; cy, Glynebwy) is a town at the head of the valley formed by the Ebbw Fawr tributary of the Ebbw River in Wales. It is the largest town and the administrative centre of Blaenau Gwent county borough. The Ebbw Vale and Brynmawr con ...

Fleet details

Individual vehicles are numbered as follows, with the last two digits of each vehicle number matching those of the unit to which the vehicle belongs: European Vehicle Numbers for the fleet are devised by prefixing the domestic vehicle number with type code 95, country code 70, and a

leading zero A leading zero is any 0 digit that comes before the first nonzero digit in a number string in positional notation.. For example, James Bond's famous identifier, 007, has two leading zeros. Any zeroes appearing to the left of the first non-zero d ...

; "95700...".

Illustration

Notes

References

External links

{{British Rail DMU, state=collapsed 231 Stadler Rail multiple units Train-related introductions in 2023