Govia Thameslink Railway brings in extra trains in readiness for improved December timetable

• Additional fleet of 30 x Class 379 trains supports significant improvements for Great Northern and Thameslink commuters in December 2025
• More services, faster journeys and better connections between London and stations on route to Cambridge and King’s Lynn

An additional fleet of 30 modern trains will help Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) give its Great Northern and Thameslink passengers faster journeys from key destinations, better connections at the end of the year, and more space for passengers where it’s needed most.

The Electrostars are leased from owners Porterbrook, the UK’s leading rolling stock financier and asset management company, which acquired the fleet from Akiem in March 2024.

The first two four-carriage units (numbers 379002 and 022) entered service yesterday evening as an eight-carriage train on the existing 17:24 from King’s Cross to Letchworth Garden City service. This morning they operated the 07:45 from Letchworth Garden City to King's Cross and will continue to run these two services each weekday. More 379s will come on stream later.

The Class 379 trains, originally built in 2011 for Stansted Express, feature up-to-date customer information systems, accessibility features and plug sockets for charging devices. The units have been reactivated by GTR with support from Porterbrook and Alstom (see Alstom press release here).

Faster journeys, better connections and additional peak services

The major new timetable being introduced in December will take advantage of a £4bn decade-long series of upgrades made to the route to introduce new long-distance services to London from the North of England.

GTR has made sure there will be significant benefits for its Great Northern and Thameslink customers travelling to and from stations between King’s Lynn, Cambridge and London, including those using stations on the Hertford Loop via Hertford North.

The December 2025 changes for Thameslink and Great Northern customers include:

• Three more peak time services and seats for commuters between Cambridge, Letchworth Garden City and London King’s Cross, including a new Letchworth to London King’s Cross stopping peak time service, calling additionally at New Barnet.
• New departures at Hertford North, Bayford, Cuffley and Crew’s Hill in the morning peak.
• Up to seven minutes faster journey times between London King’s Cross and King’s Lynn, Ely, Cambridge and stations along this route, including Foxton, Knebworth and Welwyn North.
• New early morning peak time service between Peterborough and London King’s Cross.
• Extra stops at Knebworth on morning peak Thameslink services from Peterborough to Horsham.
• More evenly spaced departure times so customers don’t need to wait as long for a train.
• Provision for all Thameslink and Great Northern services between Cambridge and central London to call at the new Cambridge South station when it opens.

The introduction of the recently acquired fleet of Class 379s will also provide sufficient capacity to release a number of existing Class 387 Great Northern trains to support and strengthen passenger services south of London on Southern and across the South East on Southeastern (see editor’s notes about the fleet cascade).

GTR Engineering Director Steve Lammin said: “These extra trains we have started to bring into service are a real demonstration of GTR working with partners across the rail industry to give passengers extra services and better journeys right across the South East. They're supporting our steady recovery from the effects of the pandemic.

“Here, on the route north of London to Cambridge and King’s Lynn, we’ve worked with our partners across the rail industry to develop this new timetable for December 2025 that capitalises on the massive £4bn decade-long investment in the East Coast Main Line.

“For our Great Northern and Thameslink customers travelling to and from stations between London, Hertford North, Cambridge and King’s Lynn that will mean more passenger space at peak times where it is needed most, quicker trips to and from London from key destinations and more evenly spaced departure times so customers don’t need to wait as long for a train.

“The timetable will also ensure we are ready for new services to be introduced in the future, for example at Cambridge South station when it opens.”

Stefan Rose, Chief Investment Officer at Porterbrook, said: “I’m delighted that more of our Electrostars are entering service with GTR. When we acquired the fleet from Akiem last year we were confident that they would be perfectly suited to GTR’s requirements, and it’s excellent to see them back out on the network to serve passengers for many more years to come.”

ENDS

Editors’ notes

• Click here for a full list of the timetable changes planned for December 2025

Class 379s and a fleet cascade

The Class 379 Electrostar fleet that Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) has acquired for its Great Northern services are leased from owners Porterbrook. They first entered service with Greater Anglia on the Stansted Express in 2011. GTR has carried out considerable work at its depot in Hornsey to make the trains ready for service. This includes:

• Provision of spares to support the ongoing maintenance of the units
• Recommissioning materials
• Repair and overhaul of spares and components
• Updates to software for selective door operation, PIS, TCMS etc
• Provision of training and manuals (despite 379s being from the E* platform, there are numerous differences between 379s and our existing fleets)
• Re-mobilisation and updating of all back-office systems such as OTDR, CCTV, energy metering, passenger counting, Wi-Fi etc
• Design and supply of Tracklink III equipment for SDO operation
• Completing outstanding overhauls and maintenance tasks
• Also, gauging study and infrastructure works in collaboration with Network Rail

There are 30 four-carriage units in the Class 379 fleet. As well as providing some additional services between King’s Lynn, Cambridge and London, there will be enough trains for GTR to release a number of its existing 29 Great Northern Class 387 four-carriage trains to work south of London on the third rail (Class 387s are dual voltage and can run on both overhead and third rail power supplies).

This will allow GTR to run additional services in south London on the Southern network and also provide sufficient capacity to release 13 Class 377 Electrostars from Southern for Southeastern to support its services (two trains have already transferred, see Southeastern’s press release).

Cascading Class 387s

GTR has a total combined fleet of 65 Class 387 units (32 Class 387/1s; 27 Class 387/2s; 6 Class 387/3s) which in future will be split between its Great Northern, Southern and Gatwick Express brands. By the end of the introduction of 30 Class 379s and the cascade of 13 Class 377 units to Southeastern, GTR intends that the 65 Class 387s will be split as follows:

• 12 units will be required for use on Great Northern routes
• 46 units will be required for use on Southern and Gatwick Express routes
• The remaining seven units will be split between Hornsey and Lovers Walk depots as maintenance holdings including planned overhaul and ETCS digital signalling fitment programme. The flexibility of the dual voltage fleet enables us to be agile as demand requires.

It is expected that 387101 – 387114 will remain with Great Northern and the remainder (24 units in total) move from Great Northern to Southern, however the exact number will depend on the maintenance holdings as described above.