West Midlands Railway Class 730

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West Midlands Railway Class 730s entered service between Wolverhampton and Walsall this month, I take a look onboard and provide some background about the new Aventra based trains

#Class730 #westmidlands #westmidlandsrailway

The class 730 Adventure electric multiple units were ordered in 2017 when a Consortium made up of aello East Japan Railway and mitsui won the bid to operate the West Midlands franchise initially 81 electric multiple units were ordered split between 36 3C car and 45 5c car units however the order was

Modified in 2022 two 48 3C car and 36 5c car sets the order for the trains was funded by Co Link rail which was established specifically to fund the new trains as well as the class 196 diesel multiple units which are being leased to West Midlands trains West Midlands

Trains is the operating company which is split between two different trading names with West Midlands Railway providing local services in the West Midlands and London Northwestern Railway operating Regional and longdistance routs between Liverpool crew the West Midlands and London the three car class 730s will replace class 3 23s and class

350s on West Midlands Railway Cross City Line and local routes whilst the five car class 730 d2s will be used on London Northwestern Railways Regional and inter city services as the three car sets will work on local routs they have a top speed of 90 mph whilst the five car

Units will have a top speed of 110 mph to match the E Class 350s which operat on Regional and long-distance routes the new units will replace S of Eleanor’s existing Fleet of class 350s however London Northwestern Railway will retain a number of the desire units thankfully

At least in my opinion l&r will be dispensing with the class 3502s which have 3 plus2 seating and will retain class 350-1 three and fours which have 2 plus two seating the remaining class 350s have either already been refreshed or will be refreshed with the units fitted with Wi-Fi and charging

Points all of the new class 730 units will have 2 plus2 two seating with the three car units fitted with 199 seats whilst the five car sets will have 406 seats speaking of seats the ones fitted to the new trains are reasonably comfortable and seem to book the trend

Towards ironing board seats fitted to most modern trains these days in fact I think this is the most padding I’ve seen fitted to a seat on a train constructed within the last 5 years Simon trains did point out in his video that the three car class 730 will have fewer seats than

Class 350s which have four carriages and the three car class 323s which have 3 plus two seating however the 730s feel incredibly spacious inside and have more capacity overall when you include standing space allthough the units are based on the same aventry design as the class 345s operating on the Elizabeth line I

Never really appreciated just how spacious the units feel but it really struck me how big the 730s look on the inside As well as sharing the same platform as a class 345 units the Aventure platform is also used for London overground class 710s whilst the 720s operates on great Anglia and C2C routes the much delayed class 701s ordered for Southwest trains are also based on the adventure platform despite the units having now been

Manufactured in relatively large numbers that have been issues with later generations of the units which differ from the ones used on the Elizabeth line I believe the Cs were redesigned for later units which has caused issues and there have been numerous reports of software problems which has hampered

Delivery of Adventure based trains the class 730s were supposed to enter service from 2020 however the first unit was only unveiled in September 2020 and the first one did not enter service until November 2023 working between Milton keing and London Houston a number of reasons have been stated for the

Delay including the pandemic and delays caused by the large volumes of vehicles the manufacturer was producing at the time and rectification work Bombardier now alom was having to undertake on the aventas it had already produced but now the units are slowly but surely beginning to enter service and I must

Say that my initial impression is they’re great units and passengers will feel the benefit both the three and five car sets will have at least one fully accessible toilet which is located next to the space for wheel change users the toilet door is now locked the toilet door is now un the

Doors are clearly marked to show where the wheelchair spaces are in addition to showing where the bike storage area is as well as the number of cycle spaces within that area unfortunately as the 730s are based on the adventure platform they do not provide step-free access

From the platform onto the train which I think is my only one complaint about the units but it is frustrating in this day and age to say the least you may have noticed that the core section of the Elizabeth line does have step-free access but this is because the new

Station platforms were built to match the height of the Units despite my frustration at the lack of step-free access I do think they’re great trains the unit I rode on was quiet and seemed to ride well on my journey from Wolf Hampton to Birmingham new street but but it remains to be seen if the five car sets will be just as

Quiet and comfortable as the class 350s traveling at 176 km an hour on the west coast Mainline but my initial impression is they’re nice units and will certainly be a step up from the ever popular class 323s just before I sign off I’d like to thank Jen on the move and Simon trains

For the video clips links to their channels can be found in the description below and I’d like to thank my patreon and YouTube members for their support which helps to make videos like this possible if you’d like to consider supporting the channel there’ll be links in the description below