TfL retiring 42 year old trains from Elizabeth line
While London’s newest major transport service has seen passengers enjoy cavernous new stations aboard almost-silent new trains an anomaly has remained to the east of London.
Trains dating from 1980 have continued to give faithful service on what is now the Elizabeth line between Liverpool Street and Shenfield – but not for much longer.
Class 315 stock is set to finally reach the buffers on 26 November, a whopping 42 years after they begun running.
From that date new Elizabeth line trains – Class 345 – will run all services both through the core and a few additional services between Liverpool Street and Shenfield.
Transport for London also operated the stock on Lea Valley routes until new stock entirely replaced them in 2020.
And so London’s oldest remaining Metro fleet will bite the dust leaving South Western Railway’s Class 455 as the oldest still running. They should have gone long ago but numerous issues have impacted upon their replacement.
Class 701 are years late with dozens sitting in sidings with no imminent introduction to public service.
When they finally do, the mantle of oldest Metro stock in London passes to Southeastern’s Networker.
They reach 30 years in public service this very week as covered here.
Unlike much older stock there’s no definite plan to replace most of those. Given the 315s reached 42 years of age, the Networker could have a substantial life still ahead of it.
