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Rail — rolling stock & vehicles
Rail — rolling stock & vehiclesFleet programme

British Rail Class 331 Civity Fleet (Northern)

Northern England, UK · 2017–2019 (construction and delivery) · £500m (2018 prices, for Class 195 and 331 fleet)

The judgement call

Account-gated at launch

* Strategic investment to replace older, less accessible rolling stock (e.g., Pacers). * Utilization of CAF's standardized Civity platform for efficient production.

Key engineering challenges

* Addressing initial teething issues, including electromagnetic compatibility and traction software. * Rectifying cracking issues in certain components. * Integration with existing network infrastructure and signalling. * Meeting restrictive UK loading gauge requirements.

Project facts

Client / owner
Eversholt Rail Group (owner), Northern (operator)
Lead contractor
CAF (Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles)
Lead designers
CAF
Project type
Vehicle/fleet programme
Scale
43 units (31 x 3-car, 12 x 4-car)
Disciplines
Mechanical; Electrical; Systems
Standards & frameworks
RSSB; Network Rail standards; Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations (RVAR)

Sources: * British Rail Class 331 (Wikipedia) * Eversholt Rail Limited (eversholtrail.co.uk) * Rail Engineer (railengineer.co.uk) * Railcolornews.com * Grokipedia