Class 710 Delivery / Entry to Service

The first was never an official introduction. It was an opportunity to test out out a unit in passenger service on WA for the hard launch.So they simply replaced a set of 317s and didn’t tell anybody officially (although staff knew and some Eagle eyed spotters figured it out) The train did fail last Monday but as I stated in previous posts this was due to something being overlooked before it entered service and wasn’t actually a mechanical issue with the train.

The plan from the beginning was always to run the one diagram last Monday and then a hard official launch on Monday 2nd. It ended up being moved to Tuesday while all parties involved looked at what caused the failure on Monday.

It’s now permanent. Mon-Fri. And some Saturday diagrams will be sprinkled in shortly.

It’s its first rush hour in service. Good luck Orange train!

TfL have put out their press release and are claiming a 10% increase in capacity.

tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases/2020/march/new-london-overground-trains-enter-service-on-routes-into-london-liverpool-street

I don’t understand how the capacity increase can be this low. Someone further up this thread estimated an increase of more than 50%! Where does the 10% come from?

Overall capacity on the whole Overground network perhaps.

Last Friday (6th March) I had intended to catch the one passenger train currently in service on a southbound journey arriving at Highams Park (passing that small 'garden') but my day was completely messed up and that will be done another day.

Instead I travelled on one from Hackney Downs to London Fields. I was very unimpressed - it travelled so slowly that despite leaving Hackney Downs well before a southbound 315 from Chingford, the latter train passed us before we reached London Fields.

Whilst on the new 710 1xx train I noticed that above the passenger doors it has three route maps - West Anglia / Lea Valley, Romford - Upminster and Goblin. This implies that London Overground (LO) foresee a possibility of these trains serving the Goblin route as well. This is new information for me as I thought that the Goblin will only be using the 710 2xx fleet that is shared with the third rail Euston - Watford service.

Later in the day I caught it again but then baled out to catch a LO livery 317 which (I later discovered) had seating that was not upholstered in LO fabric. I thought it much better to chase after the 317s whilst I still can - all being well we only have a few months to go before 710s will be everywhere and then I'll have no choice over which type of train to travel on!

Whilst 'out and about' I also saw an 8 car 710 being run in 'staff training' mode. It stopped at Hackney Downs but passengers were not allowed to board it.

So, instead of making a film about the new trains being in service I made a film showing a 710 in staff training mode plus the other types of train which currently pass though Hackney Downs - which includes trains that the 710 will displace, one of which had been borrowed from TfL Rail (hence the blue train).

Did it have a Euston-Watford and NLL map above the opposite door?

Then why the note between the maps which says "See opposite for other routes served by this train"?


I can't think of any other AC only routes. 

Included in the bottom right hand corner of the maps.

I have a feeling that these also feature on (some?) the 710/1s because of covering for the Goblin? So whilst superfluous on the WAnglia routes, they're a common design and thus more cost effective than having two separate batches.

I feel sure that I looked and found exactly the same information on both sides of the train - including the message about other routes being displayed on the other side of the train.

As an aside, I noticed today that I have a photo from one of the third rail enabled 710s - this would have been taken in the summer when the 710s first entered service. The photo shows two routes - Euston Watford and Goblin.

They all do that unfortunately even on the 345s.. just with varying degrees of severity... seems to be an Aventra trait!

There will be a second 8car out next week in service. Acceptance this Friday hopefully. If all is well should be two 8 cars in service for football at White Hart Lane on Sunday.

No, the location of the announcements are fine they just sound patchy when they are played over the PA. You get a fault/notification if the GPS is lost up at the pointy end.

I had 2 occasions last week where I couldn’t board a 710 because of someone leaning on the door close button inside the train. Had another time where I was on the inside and people couldn’t get out, but was able to tell the person they were (unintentionally) leaning on it. When you’re outside the train though, there’s nothing you can do but run to another set of doors!

A few days ago I saw a pair of class 315 in LO livery hurtling South through Harrow and Wealdstone seems a strange move to me? Where had they been? Coming out of storage?