The British Rail Class 801 ''Azuma'' is 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 ...

(EMU) built by

Hitachi Rail Hitachi, Ltd. Railway Systems Business Unit, Trade name, trading as Hitachi Rail, is the rolling stock and railway signalling manufacturing division of Hitachi outside Japan. History Hitachi's rail division before global expansion After the ...

for

London North Eastern Railway London North Eastern Railway (LNER) is a British train operating company which operates most services on the East Coast Main Line. It is owned by DfT Operator for the Department for Transport (DfT). The company's name echoes that of the Londo ...

. The units have been built since 2017 at Hitachi's Newton Aycliffe Manufacturing Facility and have been used on services on the East Coast Main Line since 16 September 2019. As part of its production, the Class 801 units were ordered as part of the

Intercity Express Programme The Intercity Express Programme (IEP) was an initiative of the Department for Transport (DfT) in the United Kingdom to procure new trains to replace the InterCity 125 and InterCity 225 fleets on the East Coast Main Line and Great Western Main Li ...

and are in the Hitachi AT300 product family, alongside the closely related Class 800 units. LNER have branded the units as the ''Azuma'', just like on their Class 800 units.

Background and design

As part of the UK Government's

, the Class 801 units were to be built as replacements for the

InterCity 125 The InterCity 125 (originally Inter-City 125) or High Speed Train (HST) is a diesel-powered High-speed rail, high-speed passenger train built by British Rail Engineering Limited between 1975 and 1982. A total of 95 sets were produced, each com ...

and

InterCity 225 The InterCity 225 is an electric push-pull train, push-pull high speed train in the United Kingdom, comprising a British Rail Class 91, Class 91 electric locomotive, nine British Rail Mark 4, Mark 4 coaches and a Driving Van Trailer (DVT). The ...

sets which were the main trains used for services on the

Great Western Main Line The Great Western Main Line (GWML) is a main line railway in England that runs between London Paddington and . It connects to other main lines such as those from Reading to Penzance and Swindon to Swansea. The GWML is presently a part of t ...

(GWML) and 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 ...

(ECML) at the time. Differing from the Class 800 units, which they were built alongside, the Class 801 units were designed as purely electric multiple units, but with one diesel engine fitted to a single coach of each unit for emergency use. The Class 801 units were to enter service for both

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

and

but due to delays in the

electrification Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. In the context of history of technology and economic development, electrification refe ...

of the GWML, it was announced in June 2016 that 21 nine-car (801/0) sets that were going to enter service with GWR would instead be converted to bi-modal operation. As a consequence, all of these sets were re-classified as 800/3 units and the Class 801 units only see operation on the ECML. However, GWR do have the option to convert all of their Class 800 units to electric-only operation by removal of the diesel engines should it be exercised, in which case they would be re-classified as a Class 801 unit.

Operations

The first service to be operated with Class 801 units ran on 16 September 2019, with a pair of 801/1 five-car units operating several services between

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 ...

and London King's Cross, as well as one return trip between King's Cross and Newark Northgate. Three further pairs of five-car units entered service through the rest of September. The nine-car Class 801/2 units were introduced on 18 November 2019, between King's Cross and

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. This allowed a cascade of Class 800/1 units onto services between King's Cross and

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

, which in turn allowed LNER to withdraw its

sets from that route.

Fleet details

Illustrations

Named units

References

{{High-speed rail High-speed trains of the United Kingdom Hitachi multiple units Train-related introductions in 2019 25 kV AC multiple units Passenger trains running at least at 200 km/h in commercial operations