British Rail Class 700

The Class 700 will be a new class of train fleet in the United Kingdom, currently under construction by Siemens. The trains will operate on the expanded Thameslink, Southern & Great Northern franchise, and are being procured by the UK Department for Transport as part of a £6 billion Thameslink Programme network upgrade. The rolling stock will be divided into 55 12-car sets (Class 700/1) and 60 8-car sets (Class 700/0)

Procurement specifications
The procurement process was begun on 9 April 2008 by the Department for Transport, with the aim of introducing more passenger capacity on Thameslink lines to match expected demand. In addition, the bidders were to provide depots for vehicle maintenance and storage, and finance for the rolling stock project whereby revenues would be generated from the long-term leasing of rolling stock to the operating Train Operating Company and associated maintenance payments.

The general, initial specifications for the rolling stock included:
 * high reliability
 * short station dwell times
 * integrated information technology including passenger information and information for vehicle maintenance
 * a top speed of100 mph
 * good acceleration and deceleration performance in line with a high frequency timetable.
 * Ride quality and noise levels meeting or exceeding current vehicles
 * Climate control (air conditioning)
 * Driver Only Operation, GSM-R communications radio, AWS, TPWS and ERTMS level 2 safety systems, as well as the ability to be used in a 'driverless' mode (automatic train operation)

In addition, the trains were to be designed for low weight and low track forces and high energy efficiency. A standard length train was to be about240 m long, with some services using trains limited to 162 m. Passenger accommodation was to include layouts suitable for both 'metro' and 'commuter' versions, based around a [2+2] seating arrangement, with fold up seats and designed for high levels of standing passengers.

Vehicles were to operate on 750V DC and 25kV AC electrification systems, and be able to brake using regenerative braking, maintenance time was to be reduced by modular components, remote diagnostics, and avoidance of overly complicated systems. The Department of Transport gave a target of 384 tonnes when empty for a 243 m train.

Bids
In July 2008 the Department of Transport shortlisted consortia including Alstom, Bombardier, Hitachi and Siemens as train builders. The Invitation to Tenders were issued to the four bidders in November 2008, however Hitachi exited the bidding process in April 2009. The remaining three bidding consortia unveiled their proposals during the course of 2009:


 * Alstom: Unveiled the 'X'trapolis UK' in September 2009 - an unusually articulated vehicle using 15.6m cars, with individual carriages proposed to be supported at one end by a bogie, and at the opposite end by a linkage to the next carriage. The shorter vehicle allowed a slightly wider design; the lower number of bogies was to have resulted in a train approximately 40 tonnes lighter than a conventional design. However, the design would also have resulted in a higher axleload.  The bid was rejected in October 2009.


 * Siemens: Bidding as part of the Cross London Trains (XLT) consortium made up of Siemens Project Ventures GmbH, Innisfree Ltd and 3i Infrastructure Ltd., unveiled the Desiro City in July 2009, a development of design and technology used in its British Desiro range and the Desiro Mainline range. Development of the design began in 2007, with an investment of about £45 million.


 * Bombardier: Offered the Aventra, a new design incorporating a development of the FLEXX Eco inside frame bogie with bogie mounted traction motors.

Both Bombardier's and Siemens' rolling stock designs were conventional EMUs incorporating inside frame bogies, and modern passenger and rolling stock information systems.

Contract decision
The contract for order was originally planned to be signed in Summer 2009, with the vehicles in service by February 2012, and a full service by 2016. The award of the contract was delayed by the 2010 general election and the subsequent spending review, following which the procurement was announced to be proceeding in late 2010.

On 16 June 2011, the Siemens/Cross-London Trains consortium was named preferred bidder for the PFI contract, with the targeted entry of trains into service rescheduled to 2015–2018. Manufacturing of the vehicles would take place at Siemens' plant in Krefeld, Germany, whilst maintenance depots were to be constructed at Hornsey (London) and Three Bridges (Sussex). As a result of train construction taking place outside of the UK, the decision to seek to award the contract to Siemens proved controversial, with widespread criticism of the UK government's bidding process and lack of weighting in favour of native manufacturing, which in turn led to a review of governmental procurement mechanisms.

Financing close
Despite securing preferred bidder status in 2011, delays finalising the financing structure for the trains, which required the consortium to obtain funding at a reasonable cost, saw significant delays to the ultimate closing of the contract. Commercial agreement was reached in December 2012, and on 14 June 2013, the DfT announced it had reached financial close with the Siemens/Cross London Trains consortium on what would be a £1.6 billion contract to finance, supply and maintain a 1,140 vehicle fleet of Desiro rolling stock. However, with finalisation of the procurement running several years late, train operating company Southern have procured an additional 116 new dual voltage EMUs from Bombardier that will be used temporarily on the Thameslink route until 2015 and, when eventually replaced by Siemens stock, would be transferred to lines such as Midland Main Line to Corby and the North Transpennine Routes. Upon delivery of the Desiro fleet, the already existing fleets of Class 377 and Class 319 trains currently operated by First Capital Connect on the Thameslink franchise to be cascaded on to other routes, including newly electrified lines west of London and in north-west England.

Classification and livery
In March 2013, it was announced that the new rolling stock has been provisionally given the TOPS number of Class 700, with Class 700/0 being the 8-car sets and the 12-car trains having the 700/1 numbering. This classification was confirmed in August 2013, in addition to confirmation that First Capital Connect had agreed with the DfT that the new trains would be produced with an initial livery of "light grey with pastel blue doors and a white diagonal flash at the carriage ends". The livery was chosen in anticipation that it could be retained by the eventual franchisee for the expanded Thameslink franchise, or treated as the basis for an alternative brand.