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Class 222 Formation/Livery | 222001-222006 | 222007-222023 | 222101-222104 | Class 222 News Archive | About the Class 222


Class 222 Meridian / Pioneer

The Class 222 is a diesel-electric-multiple-unit (DEMU) high speed train. The Class 222, manufactured by Bombardier Transportation is capable of 125 mph. There are 27 units in total.

The Class 222 Meridian fleet is numbered 222001-222023 with a total of 23 trains made up of 6 seven car trains and 17 five car trains.

The Class 222 Pioneer fleet is numbered 222101-222104 with a total of 4 four car trains with 222103 out of service following an accident at depot.

Bogies – The Class 222 fleet makes use B5000 lightweight bogies which are the same bogies used in the Class 220 Voyager fleet. These are easily recognisable since the entire outer surface of the wheel is visible.

Brakes – Class 222s have rheostatic braking using the motors in reverse to generate electricity which is dissipated as heat through resistors situated on the roof of each coach, this saves on brake shoe wear.

Coupler – The Class 222 fleet is fitted with Dellner couplers, the same type as on Class 220 Voyager and Class 221 SuperVoyager trains, though these units cannot work together in service because the electrical systems are incompatible

Engine – All coaches are equipped with a Cummins QSK19 diesel engine of 750 hp (560 kW) at 1800rpm. This powers a generator, which supplies current to motors driving two axles per coach. Approximately 1,350 miles (2,170 km) can be travelled between each refuelling.

 

A seating plan for an East Midlands Trains Class 222 Meridian 5, 7 and 5+5 car Meridian is available by clicking on the link below.

Meridian Seating Plan


Coaches and Formations

This section describes the various types of coaches used in the Class 222 trains sets.

Type

No. Series

Built

Description

Seats

DMSO – 601xx

60161-60183

60191-60194

27

Driving motor coach - Standard

38 (60161-67) 40 (60168-83)

?? (60191-94)

MSO – 605xx

60531-60337

60541-60547

60551-60557

60561-60567

60571-60574

32

Motor coach – Standard

(All except 60671-74)

Motor coach – Standard / First (60571-74)

68 (All except 60571-74)

?? (60571-74)

MSRMB – 606xx

60621-60643

60681-60684

27

Motor buffet coach - Standard

62 (60621-43)

?? (60681-84)

MCO – 609xx

60918-60933

16

Motor composite coach – Standard and First

22 (Standard) (All coaches)

28 (First) (All coaches)

MFO –

603xx + 604xx

60341-60347

60441-60447

14

Motor coach – First

42 (All coaches)

DMRFO – 602xx

60241-60243

60271-60274

27

Driving motor coach – First

22 (60241-60243)

?? (60271-60274)

 

Note: The table above shows the situation when the units were newly delivered. There have been a couple of notable changes that cannot be shown in the table above. These are:

·         MSO coaches number 60571-60574 were converted to allow for a small section of first class seating at one end not long after delivery (this is shown in the table above) . The numbers of seats is not known.

·         MFO coach number 60442 has been converted into a MCO coach. The numbers of seats is not known.

·         MFO coach number 60444 has been converted into a MSO coach. The numbers of seats is not known.

 

The current coach formations of the class 222 fleets are shown below.

East Midlands Trains - seven car class 222:

East Midlands Trains – five car class 222:

East Midlands Trains - four car class 222:


Technical Information and Interesting Facts

·         Built by: Bombardier Transportation in either Derby in England or Bruges in Belgium (if built in Belgium then finished in England).

·         Engine: Cummins QSK19R

·         Coupler: Dellner (auto coupler)

·         Door type: Plug

·         Maximum speed: 125mph (They only reach this speed when going to York or Scarborough on the ECML parts)

·         Maintained at: Derby Etches Park, Crofton (222103)

·         Selective door opening (SDO): Yes

·         Maximum coupling length: 13 coaches

·         Number built: 27 (one (222103) currently out of use)

·         Year in service: Maximum = 4-5 years (original 4 car Meridians and Pioneers, Minimum = 3 years (original 9 car Meridians)

·         Lines served: Midland Mainline

·         Maximum distance on one tank of fuel: 1350 miles.

·         Longest 222 service and farthest north running 222 service: London St Pancras to Scarborough and return (5 car Meridians on summer Saturday only)

·         Shortest running 222 service: London St Pancras to Kettering and return

·         Farthest south running: London St Pancras

·         Incidents: 222009 - door opens in service, 222103 - falls off jacks in Crofton workshop.


Names

Current Names

Unit Number

Name

Date Named

222003

Tornado

24 March 2009

 

Removed Names

Unit Number

Name

Date Named

Date Removed

222004

CITY OF SHEFFIELD

29 March 2007

August 2008

222005

CITY OF NOTTINGHAM

30 January 2007

August 2008

222006

CITY OF LEICESTER

7 March 2007

July 2008

222007

CITY OF DERBY

17 May 2007

September 2008

222101

Professor George Gray

30 June 2005

February 2009

222102

Professor Stuart Palmer

12 July 2005

February 2009

222103

Dr John Godber

13 September 2005

2009

222104

Sir Terry Farrell

6 September 2005

May 2009

 


Key Historical Dates


The 222 Story

Midland Mainline took over the running of the Midland Main Line express services from InterCity in April 1996. They inherited many HSTs which were enough to provide hourly services to Nottingham and Sheffield via Derby. To increase services Midland Mainline ordered a fleet of 17 two car Turbostar units which would then be enough for Midland Mainline to provide two trains to Nottingham per hour, one to Derby and Sheffield per hour. 10 of the Turbostar trains were boosted up to 3 cars in length to provide more capacity. When the Turbostars arrived in 1999 and were a big success and boosted up passenger numbers so much that something had to be done. Midland Mainline could either extend the Turbostars or they could order a new train that was more designed for inter-city travel. They went for the second option.

On Thursday 14th February 2002 Midland Mainline placed an order for 23 Class 222 Meridian trains. These would create 210 jobs and add 10,000 extra seats to the network. The 23 Meridians would be made up of 7 nine car trains and 16 four car trains. The plan was to use the 7 nine car trains on a new enhanced Leeds - London St Pancras service and the 16 four car trains would replace the Turbostars on the routes they ran on. While the trains were being built the SRA refused the Leeds - London St Pancras services which meant that the 7 nine car trains being built had no services to run on when delivered. Meanwhile Hull Trains who ran services from Hull - London were also using Turbostars to run their services decided that they needed to upgrade their trains and ordered 4 Class 222 Pioneer trains. These would be the same as the ones Midland Mainline ordered but with slightly different interiors.

In Early 2008 the first Meridian was delivered to the UK via the Channel Tunnel. The Meridian delivered was number 222008. Test runs were conducted and 222008 made its first passenger service on 31st May 2004. Over the next year all the other Meridians and Pioneers were delivered the UK. While the shorter 4 car trains were all in service on the Midland Main Line the 9 car Meridians stood out of use with their future un-decided. There were talks of them going to Ireland but this would involve a lot of technical changes to the trains. Finally it was decided that they would be put into use with Midland Mainline to replace some of the HSTs that they had. The 9 car Meridians were put into use on most of the fast express services from Nottingham - London St Pancras and a few of the fast express services from Sheffield - London St Pancras.

After a review of the performance of the fleet Midland Mainline could see that some of the four car Meridian services were getting crowded where the nine car Meridian services were very lightly loaded. They decided that nine cars was too many and reduced all the 7 nine car Meridians to eight car Meridians and then inserted the spare coach into 7 of the four car Meridians (222011-222017). This process was done in early 2007 and this produced better capacity demand ratio.

Hull Trains had happily been using the Pioneers on their services for the past three years. But in early 2007 disaster stuck when two cars of Pioneer number 222103 fell of jacks while it was being maintained. This left Hull Trains needing 100% availability for their trains. The Pioneers performed brilliantly with only a few days of cancelled services. This shows what a good and well designed train the Class 222 is. Due to the high usage Pioneer number 222102 set on fire but not much damage was done and the train was back in service a few days later. After a while Hull Trains were informed that the cars damaged from the jack incident would need to be replaced and this could take 18 months. They decided to use Class 180 trains that First Great Western no longer needed to fill in for the out of use 222103. There are rumours that Hull Trains will replace all their fleet with Class 180 trains. The Pioneers would then go to East Midlands Trains. There is no proof of this though.

In November 2007 the Midland Main Line franchise ended and so did Midland Mainline with it. The new operator is a new company called East Midlands Trains. After looking at the fleet they could see that four car trains were no longer enough for the capacity needed. Five car trains were needed. To do this they took one more car from 6 (222001-222006) of the eight car Meridians making them seven car Meridians; they then took three cars (one standard and two first to be converted to standard) from eight car Meridian 222007 to reduce it to a five car Meridians. All these spare coaches were then added to the remaining four car Meridians. This produced a uniform fleet of 6 seven car Meridians and 17 five car Meridians. This process was done in early 2008. The last three Meridians to be upgrade to 5 coaches had to wait until autumn 2008 due to the need to convert two coaches from first to standard which is taking a while. All Meridians were reformed and rebranded by October 2008.

December 2008 saw the start of a brand new timetable for East Midlands Trains London services. The Meridians were a big part of delivering this timetable. The seven car Meridians were removed from most of the fast Nottingham - London services, these Meridians were then placed Sheffield - London services. As the Sheffield - London services diagram share with the new Corby - London services six seven-car Meridians are not enough to provide the hourly service so five car Meridians are also used on both Corby and Sheffield services. As of January 2009 the Corby - London services are currently terminating at Kettering and reversing there. This is due to East Midlands Trains not having enough intercity trains to provide the service. To combat this East Midlands Trains are in the process of receiving the four 4 car Pioneers that Hull Trains uses on the London-Hull services. 222101 was moved to East Midlands Trains on 26th January 2009 with 222102 following on the 28th January 2009. These are now being used in service. 222104 moved to East Midlands Trains on the 27th April 2009 and is currently being prepared for use in service. 222103 is due to move soon (when it is fixed).

to be updated...

 

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