UK: Railway Gazette went to the Velim test circuit in the Czech Republic for a ride on a set of the Mark 5A locomotive-hauled coaches being built by Spanish company CAF for TransPennine Express inter-city services across the north of England.
The push-pull trainsets financed by Beacon Rail will be branded Nova 3.
The operator’s Hitachi AT300 electro-diesel multiple-units will be known as the Nova 1 fleet, while inter-city EMUs to be supplied by CAF will be known as Nova 2.
- A detailed description of the TransPennine Express fleet renewal programme, including a report from Velim, appears in the May 2018 issue of Railway Gazette International, available to subscribers via our digital archive.
