Class 810 for East Midlands Railway Construction/Introduction Updates

[WesternLancer]

The Mk3 aircon was beyond weak, particularly in summer. I think I prefer the modern noisy type, at least it circulates air with enough force that there is some movement in it. That indeed may be why it's noisy (that sort of hissing noise is usually caused by air turbulence at the outlets).

It also helps drown out idiots playing stuff out of phones.

If anyone finds it impossibly annoying, it's exactly the sort of sound noise cancelling earphones are good at cancelling out, by the way.

The noise I find most irritating on 8xx is the whine you get from the electrical equipment when on electric mode. For some reason I find it's by far the worst on Lumo's units, on the 810s it didn't seem too bad.

Thanks. Some good points made there.

 

[LowLevel]

Does anyone know if the issue with the toilets often going out of service has been diagnosed yet and if so has it been fixed? I haven't seen this mentioned recently.

No, sets are still running routinely with toilets out or being failed with no toilets.

 

[Railperf]

Looks like 810-010 has failed and has been taken out of service at Derby en route to Sheffield. The 11:00 Sheffield to St Pancras was cancelled. No sign of what rolling stock will be used on the 13:35 to Nottingham and remainder of the diagram. No sign of 222004 returning into service!

 

[222001]

Looks like 810-010 has failed and has been taken out of service at Derby en route to Sheffield. The 11:00 Sheffield to St Pancras was cancelled. No sign of what rolling stock will be used on the 13:35 to Nottingham and remainder of the diagram. No sign of 222004 returning into service!

Looks like it's coming back out, re-allocated to the 1550 off NOT.

 

[Amos390]

810011 has finally reappeared on passenger after being pulled from service on the 14th Jan, it’s running 1C11-1F17-1C41-1D43-1B67-1F65-1C98-1D88

 

[Pippy1505]

Looks like 810-010 has failed and has been taken out of service at Derby en route to Sheffield. The 11:00 Sheffield to St Pancras was cancelled. No sign of what rolling stock will be used on the 13:35 to Nottingham and remainder of the diagram. No sign of 222004 returning into service!

Failed with a cab to saloon door fault - Fixed and worked remainder of Diagram from 1B67 1550 Nottm-Pancs.
222004 now stopped and being prepared for Lumo!

 

[QSK19]

Failed with a cab to saloon door fault - Fixed and worked remainder of Diagram from 1B67 1550 Nottm-Pancs.
222004 now stopped and being prepared for Lumo!

004 seems to have been the unit that EMR have fallen back onto whenever a given 810 has failed. So, without that safeguard in place, hopefully any teething problems will be dealt with quickly.

 

[liamf656]

004 seems to have been the unit that EMR have fallen back onto whenever a given 810 has failed. So, without that safeguard in place, hopefully any teething problems will be dealt with quickly.

Sort of. The only reason 004 was used to sub for 810s so much is because it's limited to what diagrams it works (most 5 car diagrams involve splitting and joining). If an 810 were to fail now they'd use a different 810 to sub as we have 5 units for 3 diagrams

 

[Railperf]

Sort of. The only reason 004 was used to sub for 810s so much is because it's limited to what diagrams it works (most 5 car diagrams involve splitting and joining). If an 810 were to fail now they'd use a different 810 to sub as we have 5 units for 3 diagrams

Yesterday 010 failed. No other 810’s came out to play. In fact 810 010 fault was fixed and it came back out several hours later. It Doesn’t seem as though any 810’s are available on standby to fill in for any faults. there is now a rumour elsewhere that 222006 will be stood down next. Surely having lost 5 222’s already, EMR would need to get at least two or three more 810 diagrams filled by 810s before losing any more 222’s as the 222 fleet is being spread very thinly and a number of units seem to be needing repairs - evidenced by the amount of units running with engines out.last week.

 

[liamf656]

Yesterday 010 failed. No other 810’s came out to play. In fact 810 010 fault was fixed and it came back out several hours later. It Doesn’t seem as though any 810’s are available on standby to fill in for any faults. there is now a rumour elsewhere that 222006 will be stood down next. Surely having lost 5 222’s already, EMR would need to get at least two or three more 810 diagrams filled by 810s before losing any more 222’s as the 222 fleet is being spread very thinly and a number of units seem to be needing repairs - evidenced by the amount of units running with engines out.last week.

The fault it had was a fairly easy fix (not denying the other faults that it and other 810s have had). I understand it can be difficult to source a ready-to-go train to put out at last minute, especially since we lost the 180s. Luckily a good few more 810s will be with us before the next 222 leaves so I wouldn't worry about any long term fleet shortage

 

[720144]

Luckily a good few more 810s will be with us before the next 222 leaves so I wouldn't worry about any long term fleet shortage

Hopefully shouldn’t be too long now until 014 is next delivered from Newton.

 

[InvHst]

810 diagrams really aren't increasing as a rate that the 222s are leaving so very soon there will be trouble

 

[Paul472426]

810 diagrams really aren't increasing as a rate that the 222s are leaving so very soon there will be trouble

I don't think currently that there are sufficient drivers trained to provide a consistent service, it's starting to ramp up now, until now there's been a small dedicated group at Derby covering all diagrams for each unit, but for every extra unit added it needs more trained drivers at all depots

 

[800001]

Hopefully shouldn’t be too long now until 014 is next delivered from Newton.

It needs to start its mainline testing first, it's also still covered in large amounts of white plastic where work in the body shell has taken place.
And is constantly getting moved from test shed to production shed (presumedly still fixing issues).

 

[D365]

810 diagrams really aren't increasing as a rate that the 222s are leaving so very soon there will be trouble

But as stated before it comes down to whether any of the 22 remaining Class 222s are required elsewhere imminently? (a discussion for a different thread of course)

 

[InTheEastMids]

810 diagrams really aren't increasing as a rate that the 222s are leaving so very soon there will be trouble

But as stated before it comes down to whether any of the 22 remaining Class 222s are required elsewhere imminently? (a discussion for a different thread of course)

Agree, whilst I don't think anybody here doubts that they will end up at Scotrail, the fact is that the tender results have not been announced.
It does occur to me that Scotrail may be sitting on the award notice until 222 are ready to leave EMR - there is no point announcing that something is happening, only for nothing to happen, especially if there is still uncertainty about the timing.

The other issue I don't remember seeing talked about is how many 810s can go into service before 10 car working is required.

 

[DannyMich2018]

Agree, whilst I don't think anybody here doubts that they will end up at Scotrail, the fact is that the tender results have not been announced.
It does occur to me that Scotrail may be sitting on the award notice until 222 are ready to leave EMR - there is no point announcing that something is happening, only for nothing to happen, especially if there is still uncertainty about the timing.

The other issue I don't remember seeing talked about is how many 810s can go into service before 10 car working is required.

Regarding your last bit, i read recently in Today's Railways UK that there are only 5 diagrams that dont involve splitting or joining at some point of the day so until multiple working gets allowed 5 is max passenger diagrams.

 

[hwl]

Regarding your last bit, i read recently in Today's Railways UK that there are only 5 diagrams that dont involve splitting or joining at some point of the day so until multiple working gets allowed 5 is max passenger diagrams.

At least the number of seats in 5 car 810 is higher than a 222!

 

[222001]

Regarding your last bit, i read recently in Today's Railways UK that there are only 5 diagrams that dont involve splitting or joining at some point of the day so until multiple working gets allowed 5 is max passenger diagrams.

Done a bit of research, I believe the two additional non-splitting/joining diagrams are:

0743 LEI-SHF
0900 SHF-STP
1135 STP-NOT
1350 NOT-STP
1605 STP-NOT
1810 NOT-STP
2035 STP-NOT

0548 LEI-SHF
0734 SHF-STP
1005 STP-NOT
1212 NOT-STP
1502 STP-SHF
1732 SHF-STP
2002 STP-SHF
2232 SHF-DBY

 

[liamf656]

Done a bit of research, I believe the two additional non-splitting/joining diagrams are:

0743 LEI-SHF
0900 SHF-STP
1135 STP-NOT
1350 NOT-STP
1605 STP-NOT
1810 NOT-STP
2035 STP-NOT

0548 LEI-SHF
0734 SHF-STP
1005 STP-NOT
1212 NOT-STP
1502 STP-SHF
1732 SHF-STP
2002 STP-SHF
2232 SHF-DBY

That's correct, although there are other diagrams where splitting/joining can be avoided if they swap a few services round so I reckon theoretically one or two more diagrams can become 810 on top of this before 10 car working is possible

 

[222001]

That's correct, although there are other diagrams where splitting/joining can be avoided if they swap a few services round so I reckon theoretically one or two more diagrams can become 810 on top of this before 10 car working is possible

Indeed, from what I saw some could be made by doing very minimal changes. Quite a few diagrams only have double working on ECS workings too.

 

[duffield]

Do we know what the status of 10-car working is? As in, is it just that more testing is required before sign off, but no serious issues are currently outstanding, or are there known problems which don't currently have a fix?

 

[Amos390]

Do we know what the status of 10-car working is? As in, is it just that more testing is required before sign off, but no serious issues are currently outstanding, or are there known problems which don't currently have a fix?

Not sure if the progress of it, but I know GBRf are still undergoing 10-car testing out of Old Dalby with 810003 + 004 and have been for a bit, with having done a mix of diesel and electric runs up and down the MML and ECML.

 

[Railperf]

810006 caped at Derby on the 0700 Sheffield to St Pancras. Let's see how quickly that diagram is restored with an alternative unit.
That's the second day this week that an 810 diagram interrupted by a fault.

 

[222001]

810006 caped at Derby on the 0700 Sheffield to St Pancras. Let's see how quickly that diagram is restored with an alternative unit.
That's the second day this week that an 810 diagram interrupted by a fault.

Looks like the diagram is being picked up at Leicester, but no allocation yet - https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:50953/2026-01-30/detailed

 

[LowLevel]

Looks like the diagram is being picked up at Leicester, but no allocation yet - https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:50953/2026-01-30/detailed

810013.

 

[InTheEastMids]

810006 caped at Derby on the 0700 Sheffield to St Pancras. Let's see how quickly that diagram is restored with an alternative unit.
That's the second day this week that an 810 diagram interrupted by a fault.

Stepping back from individual units and specific days, there are quite a lot of short-forms at the moment and they don't really show up in data that focuses on punctuality and cancellations. It doesn't seem like 3/5 810s and the remaining Cl222s are quite enough to cover the timetable at the moment.

This leads to situations like yesterday when the 1902 Sheffield was only 5 cars. Customers were unable to board due to severe overcrowding, and spilt over onto the 1905 which ended up similarly overcrowded. Looking at RTT, 5 peak time departures from London are planned for 10-car operation today. Only 2 of them were 10 car yesterday. Not good enough, and certainly the main EMR-specific complaint from "normal" customers is about overcrowding (in addition to the national-scale moaning about prices).

i.e. it feels like we are still a few weeks away from getting back to the pre-transition level, when EMR had all 27 Cl222, and a good few months away from the halcyon days when they were augmented by the 180s.

 

[WesternLancer]

810013.

Hoping to travel on a service later today that is part of that diagram - hopefully an 810 will stick with it

 

[Railperf]

Looks like the diagram is being picked up at Leicester, but no allocation yet - https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:50953/2026-01-30/detailed

810013 to the rescue

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 30 Jan 2026 ==

Stepping back from individual units and specific days, there are quite a lot of short-forms at the moment and they don't really show up in data that focuses on punctuality and cancellations. It doesn't seem like 3/5 810s and the remaining Cl222s are quite enough to cover the timetable at the moment.

This leads to situations like yesterday when the 1902 Sheffield was only 5 cars. Customers were unable to board due to severe overcrowding, and spilt over onto the 1905 which ended up similarly overcrowded. Looking at RTT, 5 peak time departures from London are planned for 10-car operation today. Only 2 of them were 10 car yesterday. Not good enough, and certainly the main EMR-specific complaint from "normal" customers is about overcrowding (in addition to the national-scale moaning about prices).

i.e. it feels like we are still a few weeks away from getting back to the pre-transition level, when EMR had all 27 Cl222, and a good few months away from the halcyon days when they were augmented by the 180s.

Halcyon days were when 222's were supported by the additional buffer fitted HST sets.

 

[jhy44]

so how many 810s in total are actually now in service (assuming all are in working order and available for service)?

and what are the current diagrams?

I need to make a london to leicester trip soon and i want to try and catch one if possible.