Class 700 Desiro City
Siemens' Desiro City, built for the Thameslink Programme: 115 trains of 8 or 12 cars, with two double doors on each side of every car. They run through central London under automatic train operation.
162 m over couplers
- Type
- Electric multiple unit
- Builder
- Siemens Mobility, Krefeld (Germany)
- Built
- 2014–2018
- In service
- since 2016
- Operators
- Thameslink
- Formation
- 8 cars (162.0 m) or 12 cars (242.6 m)
- Trains in fleet
- 115
- Fleets
- Thameslink: 115
- Top speed
- 100 mph
- Power
- 25 kV AC overhead and 750 V DC third rail
- Train length
- 242.60 m
- Car height
- 3.608 m
- Car width
- 2.80 m
- Profile
- main-line
- Seats per train
- 672
- Total capacity
- 12-car: 672 seats including tip-up seats (Siemens); 8-car: 433. Government figures of 2014 give 666 and 427.
- Status
- In service. Owned by Cross London Trains; the seats are to be upgraded from 2027.
Car types
| Code | Car | Length | Doors per side |
|---|---|---|---|
| DMOCB | Driving motor, with a cab and first class (cars 401 and 412) | 20.52 m | 2 double |
| PTOSL | Pantograph trailer (cars 402 and 411) | 20.16 m | 2 double |
| MOS | Motor (cars 403 and 410) | 20.16 m | 2 double |
| TOSW | Trailer with wheelchair spaces (car 406) | 20.16 m | 2 double |
| TOSLW | Trailer with the accessible toilet and wheelchair spaces (car 407) | 20.16 m | 2 double |
Sources
- Desiro City electrical multiple unit for Thameslink (data sheet), Siemens, 2014 (lengths, width, floor height, speed, power, weights)
- Siemens to supply trains for Thameslink (press release), Siemens, 27 June 2013 (built at Krefeld)
- Thameslink Programme: Siemens trains enter service in London, Siemens, 24 June 2016 (115 trains, 1,140 cars)
- New cutting-edge trains in full operation across Thameslink route, GTR, 18 September 2017 (55 twelve-car and 60 eight-car trains)
- Thameslink's new train enters passenger service, GTR, 24 June 2016 (first passenger service, 20 June 2016)
- Report 03/2019: passenger train door incident at Elstree & Borehamwood, Rail Accident Investigation Branch, May 2019 (four doorways per coach, each a pair of sliding doors)
- AIP Management to increase ownership in XLT (Cross London Trains), AIP Management, 30 March 2026 (owned by Cross London Trains)
- Desiro trains factsheet, Siemens (seats)
- World first for ATO on mainline railway, GTR, 20 March 2018 (automatic train operation through the core)
- More comfortable commutes ahead: rail reform spells end of the ironing-board seat era on Thameslink trains, GTR, 10 September 2026 (seat upgrade from 2027)
- Class 700 Drivers Manual (final disclosure extract), Govia Thameslink Railway (released under FOI2026-3260), September 2026, pp. PDF pp. 6, 8, 9 (side elevation of every car (measured; no dimensions printed))
- Class 707, Angel Trains (car lengths of the sister Class 707)
- SF7000: the bogie for the Desiro City (Hirtenlechner and Brandstetter), Siemens (Schienenfahrzeugtagung, Graz), 2013 (bogie wheelbases)
- British Rail Class 700 700006 (photograph, CC BY-SA 2.0), Wikimedia Commons (train_photos), 24 January 2017 (colours of the drawing)
unverified seat counts differ between Siemens (433 and 672) and the 2014 government figures (427 and 666), car lengths: no figure per car is printed for the 700; these are the Class 707's, which fit Siemens' 162.0 m, heights and door, window and bogie positions: measured off GTR's undimensioned drawings, which probably show the 2013-14 design, trailer bogies: GTR's drawing shows about 2.0 m between axles; Siemens prints 2.1 m, which is drawn