Rolling stock › In serviceData updated
Class 323 unverified
Built by Hunslet in Leeds in the mid-1990s for Birmingham's newly electrified Cross-City line and for local trains around Manchester: 43 three-car units with long 23-metre cars and 2+3 seating. West Midlands Railway retired its 26 in September 2024; Northern runs 34, 17 of them from the West Midlands.
Drawing to come
- Type
- Electric multiple unit
- Builder
- Hunslet Transportation Projects, Leeds, with traction equipment by Holec
- Built
- 1992–1996
- In service
- since 1994
- Operators
- Northern
- Formation
- 3 cars (DMSO(A)-PTSL-DMSO(B))
- Trains in fleet
- 34
- Fleets
- Northern: 34
- Top speed
- 90 mph
- Power
- 25 kV AC overhead: Holec traction converters on the two driving cars, with 146 kW asynchronous motors
- Car height
- 3.73 m
- Car width
- 2.80 m
- Profile
- main-line
- Air-conditioned
- No
- Seats per train
- 284
- Standing (5 per m²)
- 338
- Total capacity
- As built: 284 seats, 2+3 (98, 88 and 98 per car, Porterbrook), + 338 standing at 5 per m², calculated from Porterbrook's floor areas (67.71 m²). West Midlands Railway's refurbished units had 277 seats and room for 120 standing (2024)
- Status
- In service with Northern: 34 units in April 2025, when it put the 17 that came from West Midlands Railway out to tender for an interior refresh, at Manchester International depot to April 2026. West Midlands Railway's last ran on 27 September 2024. Owned by Porterbrook. Northern is to replace them with Class 350/2s from late 2027.
This page is marked unverified: its figures haven’t yet been confirmed by an official source or a published history. The foot of the page says what’s in doubt.
Car types
| Code | Car | Length | Doors per side |
|---|---|---|---|
| DMSO | Driving motor standard open (DMSO) | 23.44 m | 2 double |
| PTSL | Pantograph trailer standard with lavatory (PTSL) | 23.37 m | 2 double |
Sources
- Class 323 Electric Multiple Unit (brochure, issue 01 revision A, archived), Porterbrook, November 2013, pp. PDF pp. 4-5, 8, 12, 16-19 (43 units (22 London Midland, 4 Centro, 17 Northern); 284 seats, 2+3; 23 m bodies; double-leaf swing-plug doors at 1/3 and 2/3; one toilet in the PTSL; car lengths 23.44 and 23.37 m, width 2.80 m, height 3.73 m; 90 mph; Holec traction on 2 of 3 cars, 146 kW motors; seats and floor areas per car; build dates; Hunslet TPL)
- Class 323 Refresh (planned procurement notice 2025/S 000-016618), Northern Trains Limited, on Find a Tender (GOV.UK), 23 April 2025 (Northern has 34 Class 323s, 17 from West Midlands Railway; refresh at Manchester International depot, September 2025 to April 2026; option for two more units)
- Northern Trains publishes tender for 323s refurb, RAIL (Rich Wilcock), 8 May 2025 (Northern's 34 Class 323s; transfers from West Midlands Railway in 2023)
- Charity train ride marks end of the line for West Midlands Railway's popular Class 323 fleet, West Midlands Railway, 5 September 2024 (26 Class 323s with West Midlands Railway, on the Cross-City line since 1994)
- End of the line: West Midlands Railway reveals the last day for the class '323' trains on the Cross-City route, The Redditch Standard, 27 September 2024 (last day on the Cross-City line, 27 September 2024; Cross-City services from 1994)
- West Midlands bids farewell to its 'workhorse' Class 323s, RAIL (Peter Plisner), 15 October 2024 (26 three-car trains built by Hunslet in Leeds; most cascaded to Northern)
- West Midlands Railway: Class 730 fleet enters service between Wolverhampton and Walsall (archived), West Midlands Railway, 13 February 2024 (a West Midlands Class 323: 277 seats and 120 standing)
- West Midlands Trains' new rolling stock and depots, Rail Engineer, 19 August 2024 (no air conditioning on the Class 323s)
- British Rail Class 323, Wikipedia (body lengths, height, first service date (cross-check only))
- Class 323 refresh: planned procurement notice (notice 016618-2025), Find a Tender (Northern Trains Limited), 23 April 2025 (34 Class 323s with Northern, 17 of them from West Midlands Railway)
- Passenger benefits key to Northern's lease of Class 350s, Rail, 13 July 2026 (Northern's 323s to be replaced by Class 350/2s from late 2027)
unverified Northern's 34: its original 17 (323223-239) and 17 of West Midlands Railway's 26; the tender lists only 16 unit numbers for the 17. Northern was looking to lease two more (April 2025). What became of the other ex-West Midlands units isn't known, the first passenger service: 1994 (West Midlands Railway, Redditch Standard); Wikipedia gives 7 February 1994, build years: Porterbrook's dates run from November 1992 to January 1996; Wikipedia gives 1992-1995, car lengths are Porterbrook's (23.44 m and 23.37 m), probably over couplers; Wikipedia gives 22.81 m and 22.84 m over the body. Height: 3.73 m (Porterbrook) or 3.769 m (Wikipedia), seat count after Northern's refresh is not published, ownership: the 2013 brochure lists 22 London Midland, 4 Centro (managed by Porterbrook) and 17 Northern units; current ownership of the four Centro units isn't confirmed