LM Class 350/3 units launched two months early

摘要

LONDON Midland's new fleet of 10 Class 350/3s was formally launched into traffic on October 6, two months earlier than planned. The launch took place at Siemens'King's Heath depot, Northampton, where all the LM Class 350s are maintained. The additional units - taking LM's total number of Class 350 vehicles to 308 - will be used to strengthen existing services, some of which have become grossly overcrowded. From the launch date, the 06.18 Northampton-London Euston, 07.15 Bletchley-London Euston, and the 08.26 Tring-London Euston have all be extended from the current eight-car formation to 12 cars, providing a total of 690 seats on each service. The 15.49 London Euston-Northampton service will increase from four cars to eight, providing an extra 230 seats, and the 18.29 London Euston-Northampton train will now be a 12-car formation. The 350/3 EMUS are now regarded as the backbone of LM's services from London to Northampton, the West Midlands, Crewe and Liverpool, and some of them were used in the summer to strengthen TransPennine Express Manchester to Scotland services during the time the Commonwealth Games was being held in Glasgow.