British Rail Class 700

The NXEMU's or NeXt Generation Electrical Multiple Unit trains as currently under disscussion with both First Capital Connect and Crossrail teams before putting in a final bid. It is expected the trains will form new fleets to operate both mainline cross London services at the end of the next decade.

Description

Thameslink and Crossrail are both heavy rail routes going through London and share alot of common feature. Both will help reduce overcrowding on London Underground by moving large numbers of people and rebuilding some Underground stations (including Blackfriars and Farringdon). Both will need to place large orders of around 1,300 carriages to provide a decnt supply of stock. To this end the need for a new class of urban rolling stock has been created. The spec for the trains include ATO (Automatic Train Operation) as well as ability to have 1,000 people at once board/alight the train at once with headways as low as 120 seconds. The units may be dual voltage (the Thameslink/First Capital Connect units will be dual voltage) and should be able to work with Platform Edge Doors (PEDs) just like on the recent Jubilee Line Extension.