British Rail Class 373
The British Rail Class 373 or TGV TMST is a French designed and built electric multiple unit train that is used for Eurostar international high-speed rail services from the United Kingdom to France and Belgium through the Channel Tunnel. Part of the TGV family, it was built with a smaller cross-section to fit the smaller loading gauge in Britain, was originally capable of operating on the UK third rail network, and has extensive fireproofing in case of fire in the tunnel. It is both the second longest——and second fastest train in regular UK passenger service, operating at speeds of up to. It is beaten in both aspects by the Class 374 which is long and has a top speed of, although it can only run at 300 kilometres per hour on HS1 in the UK, most LGVs in France, and HSL 1 in Belgium.
Known as the TransManche Super Train or Cross-channel Super Train before being introduced in 1993, the train is designated Class 373 under the British TOPS classification system and series 373000 TGV in France. It was built by the French company GEC-Alsthom at its factories in La Rochelle, Belfort and Washwood Heath and by Brugeoise et Nivelles in Bruges.
Since the introduction of the new Class 374 e320 units from Siemens in 2015, refurbished versions of the Class 373 or TGV-TMST sets have been officially referred to as e300 by Eurostar to distinguish them from the new Velaro fleet.
Types
Two types of Class 373 were constructed:- 31 Three Capitals sets consisting of two power cars and 18 passenger coaches, they are long and have 750 seats: 206 in first class, 544 in standard class. The length of a complete set is dictated by the Channel Tunnel safety regulations; as the distance between consecutive cross passages is 375 metres. This means that, if a Eurostar train has to stop inside the Tunnel in case of fire or other emergencies, it would always stop adjacent to a cross passage.
- Seven North of London sets with 14 coaches and two power cars, they are in length and have 558 seats: .
Construction
The sets were ordered by the railway companies involved: 16 by SNCF, four by NMBS/SNCB, and 18 by British Rail, of which seven were the North of London sets. Upon the privatisation of British Rail, the BR sets were bought by London and Continental Railways, which named its subsidiary Eurostar Limited, now managed by SNCF, LCR and SNCB.The first Eurostar Class 373 set, 373001/373002, was built at Belfort in 1992. Identified as "PS1", it was formed of two power cars and seven coaches, and was delivered for test running in January 1993. Its first powered runs were between Strasbourg and Mulhouse, and it was transferred to the UK for third-rail DC tests in June 1993. Full-length pre-series train PS2 was completed in May 1993.
To test the 750 V DC third rail shoes needed on the Southern Region lines in Great Britain, an eight-vehicle locomotive-hauled train was used in early 1994, consisting of a Class 73 locomotive, a converted Class 33 locomotive acting as a Driving Brake Van, and six carriages from Class 438 multiple units 8007, 8023 and 8028.
An extra power car, numbered 3999, was built as a spare. This was required for a couple of years, when 3999 was renumbered and replaced another power car whilst it underwent rebuilding at Le Landy. It was overhauled and renumbered 3204 in 2016.
Mid-life update
The 22 sets still operating for Eurostar were refurbished in 2004/05 with a new interior, designed by Philippe Starck. The grey-yellow look in standard class and the grey-red look in first class were replaced with a more grey-brown scheme in standard and a grey-burnt orange in first class.In 2008, Eurostar announced that it was beginning the process to institute a mid-life update, which would not include the Class 373 sets being used by SNCF in France. As a part of the update process, the Italian company Pininfarina was contracted to redesign the interiors; the first refurbished Eurostar was not originally due in service until 2012. The refurbishment programme would also include an engine maintenance and a new external livery. Eurostar later planned for the process to be complete by 2014, allowing the fleet to remain in service beyond 2020, but following additional delays the first refurbished train was not completed until July 2015.
Maintenance
When Eurostar services ran from London Waterloo International, maintenance was carried out at North Pole Depot in West London, next to the Great Western main line. Since November 2007, Eurostar maintains its Class 373 fleets at Temple Mills Depot in East London; in France the trains are maintained at Le Landy depot in Paris, and Brussels Forest/Vorst depot.Current operators
Eurostar
Eurostar originally ran services to and from Waterloo International along existing mainline tracks, until it moved to St Pancras International in November 2007. Today Eurostar uses its fleet of Class 373s on routes from London St Pancras International to Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Marseille with a "Ski" service in the winter to Bourg-Saint-Maurice.In October 2010, Eurostar ordered 10 Class 374 "Eurostar e320" trains from Siemens to run on its existing routes from London to Paris and Brussels as well the newest route to Amsterdam alongside its Class 373 fleet. In 2016, Eurostar announced that it would refurbish 11 Class 373 sets and keep these in service once the full fleet of 374s were in service; the rest of the Class 373 were stored or scrapped.
IZY
In November 2018, a Class 373 set consisting of 373213 and 373224 was introduced into service by IZY, the low-cost service that runs between Paris and Brussels by Thalys, replacing a TGV Réseau train.Former operators
GNER
In 2000, 373303 + 373304, 373309 +373310, 373305 +373306, 373301 +373302, were leased to GNER to operate "The White Rose" services from London King's Cross to York and Leeds. 373303 +373304, 373305 + 373306 and 373301 + 373302 were all applied with GNER livery, whereas 373309 +373310 carried the original Eurostar livery without logos. The lease expired in December 2005 and they were handed back to Eurostar; they were later used to operate high speed TGV services with SNCF in northern France.When being used for GNER services, the doors of the first and last carriages were locked out of use at some stations due to the units being too long to stop in the platforms.
Due to restrictions in the power supply on the Hertford Loop Line, only one set was permitted to operate on that route at any one time. They were only allowed to run from King's Cross to York and Leeds because of gauging on the bridges approaching Newcastle. They were not allowed to travel to Bradford Forster Square because the electrical infrastructure beyond Leeds was insufficient. Manually locked selective door opening was used at shorter platforms. At the following locations on the East Coast Main Line they were only allowed to run at, shown by blue "TGV" signs next to the tracks, or required to only use one pantograph:
The Down Fast line between 59 m 10ch and 59 m 30ch
between Grantham and Shaftholme Jn
between Colton Jn and York.
SNCF
SNCF leased 3 of Eurostar's "Three Capitals" sets for use on French domestic TGV services. The sets remained in the original Eurostar livery with SNCF branding, and some sets had greyish white or silver front ends. In 2007, SNCF added more Class 373 sets to its fleet by leasing the redundant "North of London" sets from Eurostar. SNCF's lease of the sets was scheduled to last until 2011 with the option to keep the sets running for another two years.In October 2014, the three "Three Capitals" sets were withdrawn from traffic and stored, having been replaced by TGV Duplex sets. Some have since been scrapped having provided spare parts to other Class 373 sets with remaining sets still stored in Ambérieu, France.
Fleet information
Each power car has a four-digit number starting with "3". This designates the train as a Mark 3 TGV. The last digit denotes the country of ownership:- 3730xx: UK
- 3731xx: Belgium
- 3732xx: France
- 3733xx: "Regional" and "North of London" Eurostar sets
- 3739xx: Spare "Halfset"
| Class | No. built | Unit number range | Cars per half-set | Description | Operators | Unit numbers | Services operated |
| Class 373/1 | 22 | 373001–373022 | 10 | BR sets | Eurostar | 373001/373002, 373007–373018 373021/373022 | London to Paris London to Brussels London to Marne-la-Vallée London to Marseille Saint-Charles London to Bourg St Maurice |
| Class 373/1 | 8 | 373101–373108 | 10 | NMBS sets | Eurostar | 373101–373108 | London to Paris London to Brussels London to Marne-la-Vallée London to Marseille Saint-Charles London to Bourg St Maurice |
| Class 373/1 | 32 | 373201–373232 | 10 | SNCF sets | Eurostar | 373201/373202, 373205–373224, 373229–373232 | London to Paris London to Brussels London to Marne-la-Vallée London to Marseille Saint-Charles London to Bourg St Maurice |
| Class 373/1 | 32 | 373201–373232 | 10 | SNCF sets | SNCF | 373203/373204, 373225/373226, 373227/373228 | Paris to Lille Flandres Brussels Midi to Nice Paris to Boulogne Ville |
| Class 373/2 | 14 | 373301–373314 | 8 | BR's ' sets | Eurostar | 373301–373307, 373309–373314 | On hire to SNCF |
| Class 373/2 | 14 | 373301–373314 | 8 | BR's ' sets | – | 373308 | On static display at the National Railway Museum, York |
| Spare powercars | 1 | 373999 | 1 | Eurostar | 373999 | Refurbished and in normal service |
Train formation
Each set is formed of 2 power cars and 18 coaches:Original:
Refurbished:
North of London/Regional Eurostar sets are formed of 2 power cars and 14 coaches:
Fleet list
| Key: | In service | Refurbished and in service | In storage | Scrapped | Preserved |
| Power car number | Operator | Status | Notes |
| 373001/373002 | Eurostar | Scrapped | Scrapped 18 March 2018 at European Metal Recycling, Kingsbury |
| 373003/373004 | Eurostar | Scrapped | Scrapped 15 December 2016 at European Metal Recycling, Kingsbury |
| 373005/373006 | Eurostar | Scrapped | Scrapped 27 October 2016 at European Metal Recycling, Kingsbury |
| 373007/373008 | Eurostar | In service | Refurbished and in service |
| 373009/373010 | Eurostar | Scrapped | Scrapped 19 January 2018 at European Metal Recycling, Kingsbury |
| 373011/373012 | Eurostar | Scrapped | Scrapped 17 February 2018 at European Metal Recycling, Kingsbury |
| 373013/373014 | Eurostar | Scrapped | Scrapped 17 March 2017 at European Metal Recycling, Kingsbury |
| 373015/373016 | Eurostar | In service | Refurbished and in service |
| 373017/373018 | Eurostar | Scrapped | Scrapped March 2018 at the SNCF yard in Valenciennes |
| 373019/373020 | Eurostar | Scrapped | Scrapped 2 December 2016 at European Metal Recycling, Kingsbury |
| 373021/373022 | Eurostar | Scrapped | |
| 373101 | Eurostar | Preserved | Withdrawn 8 August 2017. Preserved at National College for Advance Transport and Infrastructure, Doncaster |
| 373102 | Eurostar | Preserved | Withdrawn 17 August 2017. Preserved at National College for Advance Transport and Infrastructure, Birmingham |
| 373103/373104 | Eurostar | Scrapped | Scrapped 24 November 2017 at European Metal Recycling, Kingsbury |
| 373105 | Eurostar | In storage | |
| 373106 | Eurostar | Preserved | Preserved at Train World, Schaerbeek, near Brussels |
| 373107/373108 | Eurostar | Scrapped | Scrapped 1 February 2017 at European Metal Recycling, Kingsbury |
| 373201/373202 | Eurostar | Scrapped | Scrapped 25 May 2018 at European Metal Recycling, Kingsbury |
| 373203/373204 | SNCF | Scrapped | Scrapped 23 September 2014 at the SNCF yard in Vaires-sur-Marne |
| 373205/373206 | Eurostar | In service | Refurbished and in service |
| 373207/373208 | Eurostar | In storage | |
| 373209/373210 | Eurostar | In service | Refurbished and in service |
| 373211/373212 | Eurostar | In service | Refurbished and in service |
| 373213/373224 | IZY | In service | On hire to Thalys |
| 373215/373216 | Eurostar | In service | |
| 373217/373218 | Eurostar | In service | |
| 373219/373220 | Eurostar | In service | Refurbished and in service |
| 373221/373222 | Eurostar | In service | Refurbished and in service |
| 373223/373214 | Eurostar | In service | |
| 373225/373226 | SNCF | Scrapped | Scrapped at the SNCF yard, Culoz |
| 373227/373228 | SNCF | Scrapped | Scrapped 17 May 2017 at the SNCF Technicentre, Romilly-sur-Seine |
| 373229/373230 | Eurostar | In service | Refurbished and in service |
| 373231/373232 | Eurostar | Scrapped | Scrapped 22 September 2017 at European Metal Recycling, Kingsbury |
| 373301/373302 | Eurostar | In storage | |
| 373303 | Eurostar | In storage | |
| 373304 | Eurostar | Preserved | + 1x coach, preserved at, Margate, ~January 2020 |
| 373305/373306 | Eurostar | In storage | |
| 373307 | Eurostar | In storage | |
| 373308 | Eurostar | Preserved | Withdrawn 7 August 2015. Preserved at National Railway Museum, York |
| 373309/373310 | Eurostar | In storage | |
| 373311/373312 | Eurostar | In storage | |
| 373313/373314 | Eurostar | In storage | |
| 373999 | Eurostar | In service | Spare power car. Refurbished. |
Technical details
Power
All Class 373 sets were built as tri-voltage, able to operate on and 3 kV DC using pantographs, and 750 V DC using third-rail pickup shoes. The shoes were retracted when switching to overhead power. After the opening of High Speed 1 in 2007, overhead electrification is used throughout and the third rail shoes had been removed. Five of the SNCF-owned sets are quadri-voltage, able to operate from 1,500 V DC in the south of France, used on London–Avignon and ski services.The trains are powered by asynchronous traction motors. There are four powered axles in each power car and two powered axles in the outer bogie of the front passenger coach giving 12 powered axles. Each set draws up to 16MW with of traction power, but the lowest power-to-weight ratio in the TGV family.
The class uses five different standards of overhead: domestic catenary in each of Belgium, France and the United Kingdom; fixed-height catenary on LGV lines and HS1; and taller catenary in the Channel Tunnel, designed to accommodate double-deck car-carrying trains and roll-on roll-off heavy goods vehicle trains. The driver must manually lower and then raise the pantograph during the transition between catenary systems.
Signalling systems
The Class 373s are fitted with a wide range of signalling systems, these include:- AWS, the British signalling system, only used when services call at Ashford International
- TPWS, the safety system that works with the AWS, only used when services call at Ashford International
- TVM, used on LGV, Eurotunnel, HS1 and HSL 1
- KVB, used between Paris Gare du Nord and LGV Nord, on French Classic Lines and on the HS1 connected throat around London St Pancras. It is electro-mechanical with fixed radio beacons.
- TBL, electro-mechanical, used between Brussels-South/Midi and HSL 1, Belgium.
Bogies and couplings
The Class 373 was designed to comply with the Channel Tunnel safety regulations, and consists of two independent half-sets, each with its own power car. Most of the trailer cars are supported on Jacobs bogies shared between adjacent coaches, supporting both of them, with the cars next to the power cars and the two middle coaches not articulated. Non-shared bogies are coupled with Scharfenberg couplers, providing three points for separation in the event of an emergency in the Channel Tunnel. The electrical supply cables between a power car and the first carriage are designed to break apart during an emergency separation. In the event of a serious fire in the Tunnel the passengers would be transferred into the undamaged half of the train, which would then be uncoupled from the damaged half and driven out of the tunnel. If the undamaged part is the rear half of the train, this would be driven by the Chef du Train who is a fully authorised driver and occupies the rear driving cab in the tunnel for this purpose. Due to limitations on driving hours, the driver and Chef du Train exchange roles for the return journey.The articulated design is advantageous during a derailment as the carriages will tend to stay aligned. On non-articulated trains couplings may break and the carriages may jackknife. A disadvantage of articulation is that it is difficult to remove and separate the individual carriages for maintenance. Although the power cars can be uncoupled, specialised depot equipment is needed to split carriages by lifting the entire train at once. Once uncoupled, one of the carriage ends is left without a bogie at the point of separation, so a bogie frame is required to support it.
Braking systems
The class 373s use three braking systems:- The 12 traction motors can provide dynamic braking
- All non-powered axles have four disc brakes.
- All powered axles have cast iron brake shoes pushed against the wheel rim.
Miscellaneous
To combat the hypnotic effect of driving through the tunnel at speed for 20 minutes, the power cars have a very small windscreen when compared to other high-speed trains and TGVs.Significant events
Accidents and incidents
On 5 June 2000, 373101/102 on a Paris to London service derailed on LGV Nord near Arras, France at 180mph. 14 people were treated for light injuries or shock, with no serious injures or fatalities. The articulated design was credited with maintaining stability during the incident and the train stayed upright. After investigation, the incident was blamed on a component of the transmission between the motors and axles coming loose. To reduce the unsprung mass, TGV trains have the motors attached to the train rather than the bogies. In order for the train to be able to go around curves a sliding "tripod" assembly is used, which became dislodged.There have been several minor incidents. In October 1994, there were teething problems relating to the start of operations. The first preview train, carrying 400 members of the press and media, was delayed for two hours by technical issues. On 29 May 2002 a set was accidentally routed towards Victoria instead of London Waterloo, causing it to arrive 25 minutes late. The signalling error that led to the incorrect routeing was stated to have caused "no risk" as a result.
During the night of 18–19 December 2009, there was heavy snow causing widespread disruption to roads, railways and airports across northern Europe. Five trains broke down inside the Channel Tunnel because snow in the engine compartment was melted by warmer temperatures in the tunnel, the resulting water causing electrical and control system faults. Eurostar commissioned an independent report to evaluate what went wrong and how future events could be prevented or better managed. The report's recommendations included:
- Increased number of diesel rescue locomotives with exhaust filtration to be on standby at each end of the tunnel.
- Major changes to the power cars to prevent snow ingress into electrical compartments.
- Better staff training.
- Improved communication internally and with other stakeholders.
- Better information provision to passengers.
Record runs
On 30 July 2003, on the opening press run of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Section 1, 373313/314 established a new British rail speed record of, breaking the previous record of set by an Advanced Passenger Train on 20 December 1979.On 16 May 2006 373209/210 created a record for the longest non-stop high-speed journey when it made the journey from London to Cannes in 7 hours 25 minutes. This was a publicity event for the Da Vinci Code film; the train carried actors Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou and director Ron Howard, who had jointly named the train The Da Vinci Code prior to departing for the film premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
On 4 September 2007 the first revenue train to use High Speed 1 to St Pancras set a new speed record: it left Paris at 09:44 BST and arrived at St Pancras two hours three minutes and 39 seconds later. Officials aboard recorded speeds of up to in France and in Britain.
Exhibitions
On several occasions sets appeared at special events and displays, such as at Lille Flandres in 1995, Rotterdam Centraal Station on 6 April 1996, Berlin-Grunewald station for Eurailspeed 1998, Madrid Chamartín railway station for Eurailspeed 2002 and at the York National Railway Museum for the Railfest 200 celebrations in 2004.To celebrate ten years of Eurostar service, a barge was floated down the River Thames in London on 16 November 2004, with a power car on board, specially painted by Ben Langlands and Nikki Bell. Named "Language of Places on Eurostar" by Langlands and Bell, it consisted of the three-letter "destination codes for all the places where Eurostar goes or connects". The barge went under Tower Bridge, past the Houses of Parliament and moored beside the museum-warship HMS Belfast.
At the beginning of August 2015, ex North of London powercar 373308 was added to the national collection put on display at the National Railway Museum in York.
Model railways
In 1995 Hornby Railways launched its first version of the Eurostar in HO gauge which can be extended from 4 to 6 cars, while Kato have produced it in N gauge which can be extended from 8 to the full 20 cars. Both manufacturers have made versions in the original and new e300 liveries.Hornby Railways then produced a OO gauge train pack model which was released in October 1996 which again can be extended from 4 cars to 6 cars.
Hornby Railways released its first OO Gauge train set of the BR Class 373 Eurostar in 1997.