British Rail Class 395

History

Formal approval for domestic services on the under-construction Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), later rebranded as High Speed 1, was given in December 2003. Preliminary consultations for a new franchise including CTRL Domestic services began in 2004, and in 2005 these were combined with the former South Eastern franchise to form the Integrated Kent franchise. Hitachi was announced as preferred bidder in October 2004, and a £250 million contract for 28 units was signed in June 2005, with Eversholt Rail Group as financier.

The Department for Transport named Govia as the IKF operator in November 2005. Hitachi had previously worked with HSBC Rail and UK authorities between 2002 and 2003 to demonstrate its traction system's suitability for the Great Britain network. The design drew from the 885 series A-train and the 400 Series Shinkansen. Construction of High Speed 1 finished in November 2007.

By 2008, the planned services had expanded to include the Medway Towns, East Kent, and Dover, and a 29th train was added to the order.

Operations and performance

Full regular service began on 13 December 2009, with half-hourly services to north Kent and East Kent. Seven million journeys were made in the first year. Timetabled journeys from Ebbsfleet to London fell from 51 to 18 minutes, and from Ashford by about 45 minutes.

The service was criticised for terminating at St Pancras and for slowing some non-high-speed Kent services. A limited service from Maidstone West started in May 2011, followed by one from Sandwich via Deal in September 2011. By 2013, total passenger numbers reached ten million, with punctuality at 92.6%.

Design

The Class 395 design is based on the 400 Series Mini Shinkansen and Hitachi's A-Train. It uses six-car trains with 20 m carriages and two doors per side placed one-third and two-thirds along the carriage. The carbody is formed from friction stir welded double-walled hollow extruded aluminium panels, providing lightweight and high strength. Each unit has six cars arranged as DPT1-MS1-MS2-MS3-MS4-DPT2, with traction motors on intermediate cars and pantographs on outer cars.

Bogies are bolsterless, with a common design for powered and unpowered types. Units can couple automatically in under 60 seconds to form 12-car trains. The propulsion system has 16 electric motors each rated at 210 kW, with four IGBT converter/inverter units.

Peak acceleration is 0.7 m/s², normal deceleration 0.9 m/s², and emergency deceleration 1.2 m/s². The electrically operated air brake system is supplied by Faiveley. About 40% of components came from EU suppliers.

Named units

A mockup unit was named after Dame Kelly Holmes, and 11 other Olympic and Paralympic medallists were selected in a public vote for operational units. After the 2012 Olympics, Southeastern named another 12 units after Team GB members chosen by employee vote. Some units later received non-athlete names, including five for the centenary of the First World War.

Did You Know?

• In March 2013, unit 395001 was damaged in a buffer stop overshoot at Ramsgate Depot.
• On 23 October 2017, unit 395008 struck a delivery van on a level crossing near Teynham.
• Hornby Railways released model versions of the Class 395 in 2009 and a special Olympic Games livery in 2012.