The Anonymous Widower

Greater Anglia Are Replacing Eight-Car Class 317 Trains With Five-Car Class 320 Trains

At first sight eight into five won’t go, but here’s how it will be done.

Greater Anglia’s new Class 720 trains come in two lengths.

• Five-car trains are 122 metres long.
• Ten-car trains are 243 metres long.

Compare this length with that of an eight-car Class 317 train, which is just under 160 metres long.

Several platforms on the Greater Anglia network, such as Hertford East, can only take one five-car train, as I wrote about in Greater Anglia’s Class 720 Trains.

So how does the capacity of this train compare with an eight-car Class 317 train?

Using Wikipedia, the capacity of a five-car fie-car Class 720 train is 540 seated and 145 standing or 685 in total

• Eight-car Class 317 train – 396 seated and 171 standing – 738 total – from Angel Trains web site.

The new five-car train has a capacity of 92.8% of that of the old eight-car train, but it has thirty-six percent more seats.

This plate was on the end of a Class 317/1 train.

This says that a four-car unit has 292 seats, so an eight-car Class 317 train would have 584 seats.

The new five-car Class 720 train has 92.4% of the seats of an old eight-car Class 317 train.

I suspect this is all down to modern train interior design.

Conclusion

An eight-car Class 317 train can be replaced with a five-car Class 320 train.

September 10, 2019 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Class 317 Train, Class 320 Train, Greater Anglia