Rock Rail Moorgate
Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) won the tender to operate its replacement suburban train fleet on the Great Northern route.
Rock Rail won GTR’s competitive financing competition for the purchase of Siemens trains and closed the £300m transaction in February 2016 within 33 days of being awarded preferred financier status. Rock and partner SL Capital Partners provided equity investment and Aviva provided the debt investment.
The first of the 25 climate-controlled six-carriage units (150 vehicles) will enter service in 2018 and the fleet will replace the oldest type of electric train in operation in mainland Britain, the Class 313 trains built 1976-77.
Benefits
The new trains will be a variant of the Class 700 Desiro City with many benefits:
- Full width inter-vehicle gangways to create more space for the passenger
- Intelligent climate-controlled air-conditioning
- Real-time passenger information system
- Power points throughout
- Built-in Wi-Fi functionality for all passengers




