The British Rail Class 397 '' Civity'' is a class of electric multiple unit built by Spanish rolling stock manufacturer CAF for lease to

TransPennine Express TransPennine Express (TPE), legally First TransPennine Express Limited, is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that operates the TransPennine Express franchise. It runs regional and inter-city rail services between the major ci ...

Eversholt Rail Group Eversholt Rail Group is a British rolling stock company (ROSCO). Together with Angel Trains and Porterbrook, it is one of the three original ROSCOs created as a result of the privatisation of British Rail. Eversholt was established in March 1994 ...

. A total of twelve five-car units were built to operate services on ''TransPennine North West'' services between

Liverpool Lime Street Liverpool Lime Street is a terminus railway station and the main station serving the city centre of Liverpool. Opened in August 1836, it is the oldest still-operating grand terminus mainline station in the world. A branch of the West Coast ...

/ and

Edinburgh Waverley Edinburgh Waverley railway station (also known simply as Waverley; gd, Waverley Dhùn Èideann) is the principal railway station serving Edinburgh, Scotland. It is the second busiest station in Scotland, after Glasgow Central. It is the north ...

/. TransPennine Express has branded all of their new fleet under the general name ''Nova'', with the Class 397 units branded as ''Nova 2''. The first unit entered service on 30 November 2019.

History

The announcement of new trains was made by

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.TransPennine Express TransPennine Express (TPE), legally First TransPennine Express Limited, is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that operates the TransPennine Express franchise. It runs regional and inter-city rail services between the major ci ...

franchise from 1 April 2016. In May 2016 it was announced by TransPennine Express that they had ordered 12 five-car electric multiple units from CAF to replace the fleet of ten four-car Class 350/4 ''Desiro'' units which previously operated TransPennine Express services between Liverpool, Manchester and Scotland. This train is not equipped with tilting. Testing of the first set began at the

Velim railway test circuit The Velim test center ( cs, Zkušební centrum Velim) is a railway rolling stock testing facility at Cerhenice, close to the town of Kolín in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. Perhaps its most notable feature is the Velim railwa ...

in July 2018. An option for up to 22 extra units was available to TransPennine Express, but it was not exercised.

Operation

The ''Nova 2'' was launched officially by TPE at

with other members of the ''Nova'' fleet. The first unit entered passenger service on 30 November 2019.

Fleet details

The units were designed as an intercity train. This included the addition of single doors at the ends of the coach, a maximum speed of and first class with catering provision from the on-board galley kitchen. Wi-Fi and seat reservations are also available on the train. These trains were also awarded the Golden Spanner Award for maintenance reliability.

Vehicle numbering

Individual vehicles are numbered in the ranges as follows, with the last three 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 94, country code 70, and a leading zero; "94700...".

Livery illustration

References

External links

{{Civity UK, state=collapsed

397 Year 397 ( CCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Caesarius and Atticus (or, less frequently, year 1150 ...

CAF multiple units Train-related introductions in 2019