EMR Brings In Extra Trains As New Fleet Delays Continue

East Midlands Railway is to introduce up to 17,000 additional seats a week on its Intercity services as delays to the rollout of its new £400 million Aurora fleet continue.

The train operator, which is run by Transport UK, will introduce two Class 221 trains leased from Grand Central from Monday, December 14th

They will provide ten-carriage services on selected weekday routes between Sheffield, Nottingham and London St Pancras, which should boost services from Market Harborough.

The move is a temporary measure designed to increase capacity while EMR continues to grapple with delays to the introduction of its new Class 810 Aurora trains, manufactured by Hitachi Rail.

As well as providing additional seats on the services they operate, the Class 221 trains will release another train to boost capacity on eight further Intercity services.

However, the longer trains will not stop at Chesterfield, Beeston or Long Eaton because the platforms at those stations cannot accommodate them.

The Class 221 trains will operate alongside EMR’s existing Class 222 fleet and the new Class 810 Aurora trains, although passengers may notice differences in their layout and onboard facilities.

Neil Grabham, EMR’s Interim Managing Director, said: “Increasing capacity for our customers is an important part of our work to strengthen Intercity services, and from Monday 14 December we’ll be adding up to 17,000 additional seats each week on weekdays.

“By introducing two additional Class 221 trains, we’re not only increasing the capacity of the services they operate but also freeing up another train to provide more seats on a further eight Intercity services.

“This allows us to make better use of the fleet available and provide more seats for customers while we work with Hitachi Rail to introduce more of our new Class 810 trains and improve the availability and reliability of our Intercity fleet.”