BOLD and distinctive – that’s the way engineering director Andy Cope described the two head-turning, rainbow-striped electric trains making a special appearance at a London station.

The Class 319 trains with their striking new liveries were named at London Blackfriars station as part of a campaign to tell passengers about the massive £5.5 billion capacity upgrade of the cross-London Thameslink route.

The two trains carry a website address – www.thameslinkprogramme.co.uk – where passengers can receive up-to-date information about the Thameslink project and where and when services will be disrupted due to engineering work.

First Capital Connect staff chose the names ‘Transforming Blackfriars’ and ‘Transforming Farringdon’ to highlight two major elements of the Thameslink Programme, which will introduce 50 per cent longer, 12-car trains and increase capacity on the route between Brighton and Bedford.

Blackfriars – with a new station spanning the River Thames – and Farringdon station are being rebuilt or remodelled to take longer trains and create better Tube access. Farringdon will also have a Crossrail interchange.

Andy Cope, engineering director for FCC, said: “There can’t be two trains anywhere in Britain with a livery as bold and distinctive as this. They are real head-turners.

“And the Thameslink programme will transform passenger capacity on the route.”

Blackfriars Tube station will have to shut until late 2011, the branch line from Farringdon to Moorgate will close permanently and already, every night and almost every weekend, the route is closed between St Pancras International and London Bridge/Herne Hill for engineering works by Network Rail.

Back to News