Rolling stock › In serviceData updated
Class 379 Electrostar unverified
Thirty four-car Electrostars built at Derby in 2010–11 for the Stansted Express, with extra luggage space and first class at one end. Porterbrook bought them in 2024 after they came off lease from Greater Anglia, and they have run Great Northern trains out of King's Cross since February 2025.
Drawing to come
- Type
- Electric multiple unit
- Builder
- Bombardier Transportation (now Alstom), Derby
- Built
- 2010–2011
- In service
- since 2011
- Operators
- Great Northern
- Formation
- 4 cars, 80.77 m, walk-through, with first class in one driving car
- Trains in fleet
- 30
- Fleets
- Great Northern: 30
- Top speed
- 100 mph
- Power
- 25 kV AC overhead
- Train length
- 80.77 m
- Profile
- main-line
- Walk-through
- Yes
- Air-conditioned
- Yes
- Seats per train
- 209
- Total capacity
- 20 first class and 189 standard seats as built, plus 2 folding seats (Akiem). DfT's 2016 franchise table also allows for 136 standing.
- Status
- In service. Leased from Porterbrook and maintained at Hornsey.
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.
Sources
- Govia Thameslink Railway brings in extra trains in readiness for improved December timetable, GTR, 11 February 2025 (30 four-car units leased from Porterbrook; originally built in 2011 for Stansted Express; first Great Northern service 10 February 2025 (379002 and 379022 as eight cars); reactivated at Hornsey)
- Class 379s enter passenger service with GTR, Porterbrook, 11 February 2025 (built at Derby Litchurch Lane, 2010–2011; first Great Northern service 10 February 2025; reactivated by Alstom)
- Porterbrook acquires Electrostar fleet, Porterbrook, 13 March 2024 (Porterbrook takes ownership of the 30 units, March 2024; built in 2011; previously Greater Anglia, off lease; for GTR's Great Northern)
- Class 379 Electrostars begin new duties on Great Northern services, RAIL, 12 February 2025 (30 units built by Bombardier for Stansted Express, bought from Akiem in March 2024; Alstom overhaul at Crewe)
- Govia Thameslink Railway begins cascade of Class 377s and 387s, Rail, 13 February 2025 (allocated to Hornsey for King's Cross to Peterborough and King's Lynn)
- Fleet accessibility information, Great Northern (Thameslink Southern Great Northern Ltd), April 2026 (379s on King's Cross services to Peterborough, Cambridge and King's Lynn; accessible carriage, standard and accessible toilets, April 2026)
- Class 379 (fleet page, with table of characteristics), Akiem, 2020 (unit length 80.77 m; 25 kV; 160 km/h; 4 cars with through gangways; doors at the 1/3 and 2/3 positions of each car; 189 standard and 20 first class seats and 2 folding seats; 1 standard and 1 accessible toilet; up to 3 units in multiple; air-conditioned; built 2011)
- Bombardier signs Stansted airport train order, Railway Gazette International, 2 April 2009 (120 cars (30 four-car units) ordered from Bombardier in April 2009, to be built at Derby; 160 km/h)
- First new Stansted Express train rolls out, Railway Gazette International, 14 October 2010 (first unit unveiled at Derby, October 2010; 25 kV 50 Hz, 160 km/h; revised body structure and window spacing; 189 standard and 20 first class seats, first class at one end)
- First new Class 379 train for Stansted Express unveiled at preview event, National Express East Anglia, October 2010 (100 mph; 20 first class and 189 standard seats per four-car train)
- Passengers benefit from early arrival of all 30 of NXEA's new Class 379 trains, National Express East Anglia, 2011 (all 30 in service by 2011; built at Derby by Bombardier; 100 mph; 20 first and 189 standard seats; air-conditioned)
- National Express launches Class 379s on Stansted Express service (Railway Herald, issue 260), Railway Herald, 21 March 2011, p. 3 (first public service 8 March 2011 (379005 and 379006); official launch 17 March 2011)
- Stansted stock stands up to the test, RAIL (Richard Clinnick), 27 July 2011 (built at Derby Litchurch Lane; in service from March 2011; first class in one coach; two toilets, the accessible one in car 61913; gangways between cars)
- East Anglia Franchise Agreement (public register copy, version 5.8X): Appendix to Schedule 1.6, Table 1, Original Rolling Stock, Department for Transport, 23 August 2016, as amended to 2020, p. 218 (120 vehicles, 30 x 4 cars; 189 standard seats, 136 standing, 20 first class, 2 wheelchair spaces per unit; owner Macquarie)
- Great Northern Class 379 photographs (379028 and 379010 at Finsbury Park, 29 May 2025; 379024 at Hornsey depot, 4 April 2025), Wikimedia Commons (Southsea_Matt, CC BY-SA 4.0; Tom Page, CC BY-SA 4.0), 2025 (photograph check: double-leaf sliding doors, two per side on each car)
- British Rail Class 379, Wikipedia (car types and formation; withdrawal in 2022 (cross-check))
unverified the car order and car types, DMSO-MSO-PTSO-DMCO (Wikipedia, citing Platform 5's 2012 stock book). Railway Gazette puts first class at one end of the train, and RAIL's 2011 review puts the accessible toilet in car 61913 and the other toilet in a '619xx' car, so both toilets are shown in the pantograph trailer, car lengths, height and width: not published by Akiem, Porterbrook or GTR, and Wikipedia gives none. Bombardier gives 2.80 m wide and 20.395 m and 19.990 m cars for other four-car Electrostars, but the 379's body structure was revised (Railway Gazette), so these aren't used, first class: 20 seats as built (NXEA, Railway Gazette, Akiem and DfT), but RAIL's 2011 review counted 22. No source says whether GTR still sells first class on the 379s, how many of the 30 run each day: Wikipedia, citing RAIL of November 2025, says 20, Greater Anglia's withdrawal of the fleet in February 2022, because of high leasing costs (Wikipedia, citing Today's Railways UK). Porterbrook says only that the trains came off lease