Class 360

The class 360 is a four and five coach 100-110mph electric multiple unit built by Siemens.

History

360/1

Lets start off with the four coach 360/1 which were ordered in 2002 by the often forgotten First Great Eastern. First Great Eastern ordered the 21 strong fleet of four coach 100mph 360/1s to replace the class 312s. The first 360/1 entered service on the 12th of August 2003 and ran to destinations including Walton-on-the-Naze, Harwich and Norwich from London Liverpool Street. In February 2004 360115 was sent back to Germany for pantograph modifications to improve performance for the 360s. In April the same year they passed from First Great Eastern to National Express East Anglia which was more commonly known as One. In February 2012 they transferred to Greater Anglia, who subsequently replaced the 360/1s with the new Class 720s. This would have made the 360/1s homeless unless East Midlands Railway stepped in and used them to replace the EMR Intercity Class 222s on there Corby electric services which were rebranded to EMR Connect to allow for the replacement of the HSTs on East Midlands Railway. The 360/1s under went a major overhaul in June 2020 which has saw them upgraded from 100mph to 110mph running which is currently only possible North of Bedford however as Network Rail upgrades the OLE on the Midland Main line South also referred ro as the Bedpan Line to allow Class 810 Auroa’s to achieve 125mph under electric power this will permit the 360/1s to do 110mph. The 360/1s were introduced on East Midlands Railway on the 16th of May 2021. On the 20th of March 2024 East Midlands Railway announced that they had started a £60 Billion refurbishment of the EMR Connect and Regional fleet of trains, which included the repaint of the trains into EMR Purple and replacement of existing seats with 2+2 seating.

360/2

The 360/2s were ordered by the British Airports Accostaint in June 2003, for the Heathrow Connect service. It was decided later on that there should be an extra unit for the Heathrow T4 shuttle. The first unit was delivered to Heathrow Connects depot at Old Oak Common in November 2005. Heathrow Connect started services in June 2006. In 2007 due to increasing demand an extra 5 intermediate coaches where ordered to allow for extension of the 360/2s to five coach trains. In May 2018 the fleet was inherited by TfL Rail to form part of the larger Elizabeth line service. This slowly saw them replaced by the Class 345s, until on the 20th of July 2020 the 345s were permitted to work to Heathrow which saw the final 360/2 working on the 13th of September 2020. In February 2021 they were purchased by Rail Operations Group in a bid to create a fast freight unit. Unforatany this fell through and subquentlym 360204 & 360205 where scrapped at Newport SIMS, however the other three 360/2s where saved and moved to the Global Centre for Railway Excellent.

Fleet Details

360/1 - 360101-360121 360/2 - 360201-360205