The British Rail Class 333 are electric multiple unit passenger trains built by CAF between 2000 and 2003 for Northern Spirit (later Arriva Trains Northern), with traction equipment supplied by

Siemens Transportation Systems Siemens Mobility GmbH is a separately-managed company of Siemens, arising from a corporate restructuring effective 1 August 2018. With its global headquarters in Munich, Siemens Mobility has four core business units: Mobility Management, dedi ...

. All have passed to subsequent franchises and subsequent operators

Northern Rail Northern Rail, branded as Northern, was an English train operating company owned by Serco-Abellio that operated the Northern Rail franchise from 2004 until 2016. It was the primary passenger train operator in Northern England, and operated th ...

Arriva Rail North Arriva Rail North, branded as Northern by Arriva (legal name Arriva Rail North Limited) was a train operating company in Northern England which began operating the Northern franchise on 1 April 2016 and inherited units from the previous operato ...

and

Northern Trains Northern Trains, branded as Northern, (legally Northern Trains Limited) is a publicly owned train operating company in England. It is owned by DfT OLR Holdings for the Department for Transport (DfT), after the previous operator Arriva Rail N ...

History

In March 1998,

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

ordered 16 three-carriage sets from

for Northern Spirit to replace the slam-door Class 308s on the

Airedale Airedale is a geographic area in Yorkshire, England, corresponding to the river valley or dale of the River Aire. The valley stretches from the river's origin in Aire Head Springs, Malham which is in the Yorkshire Dales, down past Skipton on ...

and

Wharfedale Wharfedale ( ) is the valley of the upper parts of the River Wharfe and one of the Yorkshire Dales. It is situated within the districts of Craven and Harrogate in North Yorkshire, and the cities of Leeds and Bradford in West Yorkshire. It i ...

lines from

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

to Bradford Forster Square,

Ilkley Ilkley is a spa town and civil parish in the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, in Northern England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Ilkley civil parish includes the adjacent village of Ben Rhydding and is a ward within the ...

and

Skipton Skipton (also known as Skipton-in-Craven) is a market town and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. Historically in the East Division of Staincliffe Wapentake in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is on the River Ai ...

. Construction of the trains was sub-contracted to CAF with Siemens Transportation Systems providing the traction equipment. The first was delivered to

Neville Hill TMD Neville Hill is a railway train maintenance depot in Osmondthorpe, Leeds, England on the Leeds to Selby Line. The depot is situated to the east of Leeds railway station on the north side of the line. The TOPS depot code is NL. History In ...

in March 2000. The first entered service on 12 January 2001. In April 2000, a further eight trailer carriages were ordered with funding from

West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive Metro is the passenger information brand used by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority in England. It was formed on 1 April 1974 as the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (WYPTE) at the same time as the metropolitan county of West Yor ...

and inserted into the first eight sets in 2002. Subsequently a further order was placed with funding from the Strategic Rail Authority to increase the remaining sets to four carriages. These were delivered in 2003. However, the funding for the fourth carriages in the latter eight sets expired in 2007 and as a consequence of this they could have been removed. Had this happened the four-car Class 321s would have been removed from Leeds to

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

services. As a result, the fourth cars were funded by the

South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive The South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive is the passenger transport executive for South Yorkshire in England. It is supervised by the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, which consists of representatives from the metropolitan b ...

, despite not running in South Yorkshire, to ensure that four-car units are available on Doncaster services. In 2008, all were repainted into a new livery by

Wabtec Wabtec Corporation (derived from Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation) is an American company formed by the merger of the Westinghouse Air Brake Company (WABCO) and MotivePower Industries Corporation in 1999. It is headquartered ...

Doncaster Works Doncaster Railway Works is a railway workshop located in Doncaster, England. Also referred to as The Plant''", it was established by the Great Northern Railway in 1853, replacing the previous works in Boston and Peterborough. Until 1867 it u ...

that incorporated West Yorkshire Metro branding. Between December 2018 and April 2020, all were refurbished by Chrysalis Rail, Holbeck and repainted into

and later

livery. In 2022 the 333s started receiving digital upgrades, these upgrades include added USB power plugs and Digital display screens among other upgrades.

Performance

The units are capable of , but the maximum speed on their routes is . They have standard class only 2+3 high-density seating, and each set has one toilet.

Fleet details

Named units

Some units have previously carried names: *333007 ''Alderman J Arthur Godwin, First Lord Mayor of Bradford 1907'' (Unit denamed) *333011 ''Olicana, Ilkley’s Roman Fort'' (Unit denamed)

Gallery

File:Class 333 no 333011 ITW.jpg, Class 333 in the original Northern Spirit livery File:333010 Leeds TSO Interior.JPG, The original interior of a Class 333

References

External links

{{British Rail EMU, state=collapsed

333 __NOTOC__ Year 333 ( CCCXXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Dalmatius and Zenophilus (or, less frequently, year 108 ...

CAF multiple units Train-related introductions in 2001 25 kV AC multiple units