30 Minutes of Sights & Sounds LNER Azuma Class 800, Class 801

30 Minutes of Sights & Sounds
LNER Azuma Class 800, Class 801

Half an hour of sights and sounds of the Class 800 and 801 fleet of high-speed trains operated on the East Coast Main Line by LNER.

Part of the Intercity Express Programme by the UK Government, the Class 800 fleet of trains was ordered by Virgin Trains East Coast in 2015 as a replacement for the aging Intercity 125s which had been in service for 40 years. The new trains were branded by Virgin as the Azuma "the Japanese word for East". A total of 23 sets were built by Hitachi formed of nine cars which would be capable of running using 25kV overhead electrification or on non-electrified lines powered by a V12 Diesel engine mounted under the coach body. In 2017, Virgin Trains ordered 42 Class 801 Electric only trains, which would replace the Intercity 225 or Mk4 Sets, these came in the form of 12 five car sets and 30 nine cars sets.
In 2018, Virgin Group was stripped of the East Coast franchise, with service's now being operated by the government owned firm London North Eastern Railway (LNER). This delayed the introduction of the Azuma fleet until the following year... Throughout 2019 the Azuma's slowly entered service allowing all the Intercity 125 and most of the 225 fleets to be withdrawn. As of 2023, a fleet of 8 Mk4 Sets still continues to operate on the ECML, it is not yet clear to what LNER will replace them with, more Azuma's maybe? only time will tell...

Filmed: April 2022 - August 2022
Journey: Various locations on the ECML

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