British Rail Class 397


The British Rail Class 397 Civity is a class of electric multiple unit built by Spanish rolling stock manufacturer CAF for lease to TransPennine Express by Eversholt Rail Group. A total of twelve five-car units were built to operate services on TransPennine North West.
TransPennine Express has branded all of their new fleet under the general name Nova, with the Class 397 units branded as Nova 2. The first unit entered service on 30 November 2019.

History

The announcement of new trains was made by FirstGroup when it was confirmed that they would become the next operator of the TransPennine Express franchise from 1 April 2016. In May 2016 it was announced by TransPennine Express that they had ordered twelve five-car electric multiple units from CAF to replace the fleet of ten four-car Class 350/4 Desiro units which previously operated TransPennine Express services between Liverpool, Manchester and Scotland.
Testing of the first set began at the Velim railway test circuit in July 2018.
An option for up to 22 extra units was available to TransPennine Express, but it was not exercised.

Operation

Just prior to entering service, the Nova 2 was launched officially by TPE at Liverpool Lime Street with other members of the Nova fleet. The first unit finally entered passenger service on 30 November 2019, following a lot of reliability testing and mileage accumulation runs. In the end, the Nova 2 was the last member of the Nova fleet to enter service.

Fleet details