The British Rail Class 322 was a class of

electric multiple unit An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number o ...

passenger train built by

British Rail Engineering Limited British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL) was the rolling stock manufacturing and maintenance subsidiary of British Rail. It was established on 1 January 1970 by the British Railways Board to operate its 14 rolling stock maintenance centres and ...

in 1990 for the ''

Stansted Express The Stansted Express is a direct train service linking London Liverpool Street to London Stansted Airport. It is a sub-brand of Greater Anglia, the current franchise operator of the East Anglia franchise. History In 1986, British Rail (BR) ...

'' service from to . After becoming surplus to requirements on this route, the fleet saw further use with a number of other operators.

Description

In 1987

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

(BR) was extending electrification north from London Liverpool Street towards . Included in this plan was the construction of new branch line, diverging from the main line at , to serve the newly built Stansted Airport station, which opened in 1991. BR decided to build a dedicated fleet of units to work a new service, the ''

''. The Class 322 units were built to the same basic design as the units, which were still under construction for services on the

Great Eastern Main Line The Great Eastern Main Line (GEML, sometimes referred to as the East Anglia Main Line) is a major railway line on the British railway system which connects Liverpool Street station in central London with destinations in east London and t ...

and

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

, but with a larger First Class area in the DTCO resulting in a different window arrangement. Although the Stansted route fell under the jurisdiction of

Network SouthEast Network SouthEast (NSE) was one of the three passenger sectors of British Rail created in 1982. NSE mainly operated commuter rail trains within Greater London and inter-urban services in densely populated South East England, although the networ ...

(NSE), the units were delivered into service in a special white livery with a broad green band, instead of the more usual NSE blue/red/white livery. Five 4-car units were built, numbered 322481–322485. Each unit consisted of two outer driving trailers, an intermediate trailer, and an intermediate motor coach, arranged and numbered as follows: Originally the units had a lower density 2+2 seating arrangement in Standard Class appropriate to their use on airport traffic, but during their C6X refurbishment between 2005 and 2007 the units were converted to standard-class only and fitted with high-density 3+2 seating. The DTC and DTS vehicles were redesignated DTS(A) and DTS(B) respectively at this time. Following transfer from

First ScotRail First ScotRail was a train operating company in Scotland owned by FirstGroup. It operated the ScotRail franchise between October 2004 and March 2015. On 17 October 2004, First ScotRail took over operations from the incumbent franchisee, ScotRai ...

Northern Rail Northern Rail, branded as Northern, was an English train operating company owned by Serco-Abellio that operated the Northern Rail franchise from 2004 until 2016. It was the primary passenger train operator in Northern England, and operated the ...

in 2011, the first-class seating was refitted to the DTS(A) vehicles; but it was removed again in 2015 and replaced with a universally-accessible toilet. At this point the DTS(A) and DTS(B) vehicles were respectively redesignated DTSL and DTS.

Operations

Network SouthEast

On introduction in 1990 the Class 322s were painted in a joint livery for Network SouthEast (NSE) and

British Airports Authority Heathrow Airport Holdings is a company that operates and manages Heathrow Airport based in London, England. It was formed by the privatisation of the British Airports Authority as BAA plc as part of Margaret Thatcher's privatisation of governme ...

consisting of a light grey and white body with green waist band lettered "Stansted Express" on one side and "Network SouthEast" on the other. Until opening of the Stansted Airport spur the units worked peak-hour services between and , but also found use on special trains wandering as far afield and and .

West Anglia Great Northern

In the lead up to the

privatisation of British Rail The privatisation of British Rail was the process by which ownership and operation of the Rail transport in Great Britain, railways of Great Britain passed from government control into private hands. Begun in 1994, the process was largely compl ...

, in 1994 all were sold to

Eversholt Rail Group Eversholt Rail Group is a British rolling stock company (ROSCO). Together with Angel Trains and Porterbrook, it is one of the three original ROSCOs created as a result of the privatisation of British Rail. Eversholt was established in March 19 ...

. All passed with the franchise to

West Anglia Great Northern West Anglia Great Northern, commonly shortened to ''WAGN'', was a train operating company in England. It operated the West Anglia Great Northern franchise between January 1997 and March 2004, as well as the Great Northern franchise between Apri ...

in January 1997. Having been replaced by s on Stansted services, they were used indiscriminately as part of the general fleet and would operate on other WAGN services including on the

East Coast Main Line The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between its northern terminus at and southern terminus at . The key towns and cities of , , , , and are on the line. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Grea ...

between and .

Sub-leasing from WAGN

In 1998 two Class 322 units were sub-leased to North Western Trains to operate a service between and but the service was discontinued after a year and the units were returned to WAGN. From 1998 units were also occasionally sub-let to Silverlink and used on services between Euston and and to

Anglia Railways Anglia Railways was a train operating company in England, owned by GB Railways and later FirstGroup, that operated the Anglia franchise from January 1997 until March 2004. History The Anglia franchise was awarded by the Director of Passenger Ra ...

to cover for late delivery of units for to services.

ScotRail

In December 2001, all were transferred to fellow

National Express Mobico Group, formerly National Express Group, is a British multinational public transport company with headquarters in Birmingham, England. Domestically it currently operates bus and coach services under brands including National Express. Th ...

franchise

ScotRail ScotRail Trains Limited, trading as ScotRail (), is a Scottish train operating company that is publicly owned by Scottish Rail Holdings on behalf of the Scottish Government. It has been operating the ScotRail franchise as an operator of las ...

to replace the slam-door s on the

North Berwick Line The North Berwick Branch is a short railway branch line built by the North British Railway to connect North Berwick, in East Lothian, Scotland to the East Coast Main Line (at Drem). It was built as a tactical means of excluding competitors ...

. To facilitate their movement to

Glasgow Shields Road TMD Glasgow Shields Road ETD is a railway electric traction depot in Glasgow, Scotland. The depot is located on the south side of the Glasgow Central to Paisley lines, adjacent to Shields Junction and close to the site of the former station. ...

, they also operated limited services to via the Carstairs line.

One

On the instructions of the

Strategic Rail Authority The Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) was a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom set up under the Transport Act 2000 to provide strategic direction for the railway industry. Its motto was 'Britain's railway, properly delivered'. It ...

, all returned to WAGN in March 2004 in preparation for the takeover of the franchise by

One 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

. Under One, the Class 322s were using in a common pool with the s.

First ScotRail

Having been deemed surplus by One, in July 2005 all returned to Scotland to operate with

on the North Berwick Line, while also being used on peak services to Glasgow and Carstairs. To provide cover while its s were overhauled, 322484 was hired to

to operate to services. In 2006/07, all were refurbished by Hunslet-Barclay,

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock ( ; ; , ), meaning "the church of Mernóc", is a town and former burgh in East Ayrshire situated in southwest Scotland. The town has served as the administrative centre of East Ayrshire Council since 1996 and is the region's main ...

with capacity increased from 252 to 293.

Northern

Having been superseded by Class 380s, all were transferred to

in July and August 2011. Based at

Neville Hill TMD Neville Hill is a railway train maintenance depot in Osmondthorpe, Leeds, England on the Leeds to Selby Line. The depot is situated to the east of Leeds railway station on the north side of the line. The TOPS depot code is NL. History In ...

, they operated services from

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

Doncaster Doncaster ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, Yorkshire, River Don, it is the administrative centre of the City of Doncaster metropolitan borough, and is the second largest se ...

, Bradford Forster Square,

Skipton Skipton (also known as Skipton-in-Craven) is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. Historically in the East Division of Staincliffe Wapentake in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is on the River Aire and the Leeds ...

and

Ilkley Ilkley is a spa town and civil parish in the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, in Northern England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Ilkley civil parish includes the adjacent village of Ben Rhydding and is a ward within ...

. Having passed with the franchise to

Arriva Rail North Arriva Rail North Limited, branded as Northern by Arriva, was a train operating company in Northern England which began operating the Northern franchise on 1 April 2016 and inherited units from the previous operator Northern Rail. A subsidiary ...

and

Northern Trains Northern Trains, Trade name, trading as Northern, is a British train operating company that operates Commuter rail, commuter and Inter-city rail, medium-distance intercity services in the North of England. It is owned by DfT Operator for the Dep ...

, all were replaced by Class 331s with the last withdrawn in May 2020.

Greater Anglia

In July 2020 all were leased to

Greater Anglia Greater Anglia (legal name Transport UK East Anglia Limited) is a British train operating company owned as a joint venture by Transport UK Group and Mitsui & Co. It operates the East Anglia franchise, providing the commuter and inter-city se ...

to operate services out of on the

. They were leased to allow s to move to

East Midlands Railway East Midlands Railway (EMR; legally Transport UK East Midlands Limited) is a British train operating company owned by Transport UK Group, and is the current operator of the East Midlands franchise. Originally owned by Abellio (transport compan ...

. Greater Anglia withdrew the fleet from service in August 2022, and by the end of September all five units had been scrapped.

Fleet details

Named units

Some units received names. *322481: ''North Berwick Flyer 1850-2000'' *322485: ''North Berwick Flyer 1850-2000''

References

{{British Rail EMU

322 __NOTOC__ Year 322 (Roman numerals, CCCXXII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Probianus and Iulianus (or, less frequently, year 1075 ''Ab urbe condita''). The ...