GOVIA Thameslink Railway has signed a £50 million contract to lease all 30 four-car Class 379 Electrostar electric multiple units, currently stored at Worksop, from Porterbrook. The new lease coincides with a change in ownership of the fleet, which has been acquired by Porterbrook from Akiem.
The Class 379s entered service with National Express East Anglia between 2011 and 2012 and were taken out of traffic by its successor, Greater Anglia, and handed back to Akiem in 2022. Originally owned and financed by Lloyds Banking Group, the ‘379s’ were sold to Macquarie European Rail along with the rest of Lloyds’ rail leasing business in 2012. In April 2020, Akiem, which lease trains to operators across Europe, bought Macquarie European Rail.
Since their removal from service in 2022, the Class 379s have been kept in operational condition, being moved from Worksop to Doncaster periodically to be powered up. Some work on the units is to be carried out before they return to service, which is expected to take place later this year. They are to be put into use on Great Northern services out of King’s Cross, enabling the Class 387/1 fleet to be cascaded onto Southern services. In preparation for this, Gatwick Express No. 387208 undertook a gauging run to Southampton and Portsmouth Harbour on March 24.
The transfer of on March 23/24.
