Class 332

Heathrow Express

On the handful of occasions that your author has travelled on Heathrow Express, he recalls these units feeling luxurious — perhaps even futuristic — inside, particularly for a service of between just fifteen and twenty-one minutes duration. For over twenty years, the Class 332 fleet plied the route between Paddington and Heathrow, operating what must surely be the most expensive regular timetabled passenger service in Britain per mile travelled. Your author remembers the non-stop journey as being a relaxing way to travel from a bustling London terminus to one of the world’s busiest airports, avoiding the commuting chaos of the Underground’s Piccadilly Line.

On 9th May 1991, the Heathrow Express Railway Bill received Royal Assent (ref: UK Parliament Hansard, 9th May 1991). At the time, the scheme was priced at £280,000,000 and involved:

The project was a joint venture between Heathrow Airport Limited (HAL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the British Airports Authority (BAA)) and British Rail’s Network SouthEast (NSE) business sector. Funding of the 8-KM branch line — including the stations at the terminals— and rolling stock came within HAL’s remit. NSE was responsible for wiring the main line, building Airport Junction, signalling, and supplying train drivers and staff to operate the service (ref: The Railway Magazine, August 1991).

Consultancy firm Design Triangle — a specialist in railway rolling stock design — was contracted by BAA to design the then new Class 332. Based in Burwell, Cambridgeshire and established in 1986, Design Triangle — which derived its name from its expertise in the three areas of design, engineering, and ergonomics — had already designed the interior and exterior of the rolling stock used on the Mass Transit Railway Corporation of Hong Kong’s Airport Express and Lantau Line (ref: Cambridge Evening News, 17th November 1993). Additionally, their work included stock for Manchester’s tramway system and vehicles for London Underground’s Northern Line. Design Triangle was hired by BAA to produce a luxurious train, unlike anything else used for public transport, aimed at premium-priced travel (ref: Cambridge Evening News, 17th November 1993). Until this time, Heathrow Express stock had been envisaged as being based on the design of Network SouthEast’s proposed Class 341 electric multiple units (ref: The Railway Magazine, January 1994), the latter of which were a derivative of the Networker family of trains and never made it off the drawing board. However, BAA’s hiring of Design Triangle aimed to give the stock a radical new look.

On 28th July 1994, the BAA awarded a contract to Siemens to produce twelve three-carriage and two four-carriage Class 322 electric multiple units. All-steel body shells of 23-metre length for these units were to be built by Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) of Spain, and the first completed set was expected to arrive in Britain for testing in January 1997 (ref: The Railway Magazine, October 1994). Design Triangle produced a body shell interior that made extensive use of glazed luggage space and seating positioned in such a way that passengers could keep watch of their possessions (ref: Cambridge Evening News, 17th November 1993). Four-car sets accommodated 251 seats, three-car sets 179, and each unit had a toilet. Standard Class seating was arranged in the 2+2 low-density fashion, being a mixture of "airline" and "bay" layouts; First Class was 2+1.

A site adjacent to the InterCity 125 shed at Old Oak Common was selected to accommodate a dedicated maintenance depot for the Class 332 fleet. The required area was occupied by Old Oak Common West Engineer’s Sidings, which necessitated the following sidings to be temporarily taken out of use on 1st November 1995: Reception Line 2; West End Spur; Engineer's Sidings 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6; HST Stores Road and Fuel Road (ref: Branch Line News 772, Branch Line Society, 24th February 1996). Connections to the sidings were clipped and padlocked, and construction was expected to last until May 1996 (ref: Branch Line News 772, Branch Line Society, 24th February 1996).

November 1997

One of the driving vehicles of Class 332 No. 332009 is seen during a layover en route to Old Oak Common by road. Based on the motorway signage in the background, which shows Rickmansworth, Beaconsfield, and Watford, your author has narrowed down the location to around Junction 4 of the M1 at Elstree. In unbranded livery, this three-car unit ran on the first day of the "Fast Train" service between Paddington and Heathrow Junction on 19th January 1998. © David Glasspool Collection

From 15th to 19th April 1996 (inclusive), Class 332 bogie sets were tested between Old Oak Common and Reading by the Railway Technical Centre (RTC), Derby (ref: The Railway Magazine, June 1996). The bogies were based on an existing CAF design that had been used on RENFE Classes 446 and 447 (ref: The Railway Magazine, October 1994).

On Tuesday, 21st May 1996, a mock-up of a Class 332 unit went on display at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, as part of the three-day Railtec '96 event (ref: The Birmingham Post, 22nd May 1996). The first three-car unit, No. 332003, was delivered by road from Siemens’ factory in Germany to Old Oak Common in late April 1997; the second unit, No. 332004, was brought via the Channel Tunnel and arrived in London on 19th May of the same year (ref: The Railway Magazine, July 1997). At this time, No. 332001 was reported to be in the Czech Republic on the Velim test track (ref: The Railway Magazine, July 1997).

On Sunday, 11th May 1997, the then new track layout and signalling between Airport Junction and the temporary Heathrow Junction station (more of later) was brought into use, and the signalling between the former and Southall modified — the entire section was controlled from Slough New Signalling Centre (ref: Branch Line News No. 808, Branch Line Society, 16th August 1997).

On the morning of Monday, 23rd June 1997, an event was held at the then new Heathrow Express Old Oak Common Depot to demonstrate the first pair of Class 332 units that had been delivered. Attended by BAA officials and local MPs, one of the units emerged from the depot building under its own power; however, it overshot the short length of overhead wire erected for the demonstration run and had to be towed back by the second unit (ref: Ealing and Acton Gazette, 27th June 1997). In the same week, on Friday, 27th June 1997, it was announced that Derby-based rail consultancy firm Interfleet Technology had been awarded a nine-year contract worth £500,000 by BAA-owned Heathrow Express to help Siemens maintain the Class 332 fleet at Old Oak Common (ref: Derby Evening Telegraph, 27th June 1997). At this time, BAA had made known that Paddington would not be their only London terminus: plans were also being made for a service to St Pancras via North London, which would require a further build of Class 332 units (ref: The Railway Magazine, March 1997).

At this stage, it is worth briefly touching upon the raison d'être of Heathrow Junction station. On 21st October 1994, one of the then new tunnel bores for the Heathrow rail link started to fail near the airport’s car park for Terminal 3 (ref: Shropshire Star, 24th October 1994). Rain worsened the troubles, and by 23rd of the same month an empty office block started to collapse into the void (ref: The Scotsman, 24th October 1994). Tunnelling work did not restart until Monday, 21st August 1995 (ref: Uxbridge & West Drayton Gazette, 23rd August 1995), which pushed the project’s original estimated date of completion back six months. However, the decision was taken to launch a partial airport railway service from Paddington, close to the original intended start date, by opening a temporary station on the approaches to the portals of the tunnels that took the line beneath Heathrow.

In the September 1997 edition of The Railway Magazine, it was noted that unit No. 332005 was undergoing trials at Siemens’ then new test centre in Wildenrath, near Dusseldorf, Germany. By October 1997, Class 332 units were conducting night test runs into Paddington (ref: The Railway Magazine, January 1998). By December of the same year, daytime testing of the class between Paddington and Heathrow Junction station was taking place.

On 19th January 1998, the Heathrow Fast Train service began operating between Paddington and Heathrow Junction, using then new three-car Class 332 units (ref: RCTS’ The Railway Observer, March 1998). The term Fast Train was used, rather than Heathrow Express, in that period before trains went all the way through to the airport. Between the Junction station and terminals, a bus shuttle service was employed. For the first week of the service, travel was free for airline ticket holders; thereafter, a single journey was £5.00, and initial loadings were reported to have been very light. The service frequency was every fifteen minutes, running between 05:10 and 22:40 daily (ref: RCTS’ The Railway Observer, March 1998). The service between Paddington and Heathrow Junction was designated by the Office of Passenger Rail Franchising as "experimental" for a period of five years (ref: Branch Line News No. 822, Branch Line Society, 21st March 1998).

24th January 2004

It was only after your author finished researching the Class 332 and had written this section that he realised how few photographs he had taken of the type. Of those he had, they were not of the best quality either. Nevertheless, here we see No. 332004 at Paddington’s platform No. 6 in the company of three versions of the First Great Western franchise’s High Speed Train (HST) livery. No. 332004 was hauled from Old Oak Common to Wolverton Works behind Deutsche-Bahn Schenker (DBS) Class 66 No. 66104 on 20th May 2012 for refurbishment (ref: The Railway Magazine, August 2012); the completed unit made the return journey behind DBS Class 67 No. 67006 on 22nd July of the same year (ref: The Railway Magazine, October 2012). In January 2021, No. 332004 was noted as stored at Old Oak Common (RCTS’ The Railway Observer, March 2021); on 16th of the following month, the unit was dispatched to Sims Newport for scrapping (ref: RCTS’ The Railway Observer, April 2021). © David Glasspool

Effective from 31st January 1998, the Fast Train service between Paddington and Heathrow Junction was temporarily suspended. The tight curvature of the track between Airport and Heathrow Junctions was blamed for damaging the wheel sets of the Class 332 units, and four sets were dispatched to Eurostar’s North Pole Depot for wheel lathe attention (ref: The Railway Magazine, April 1998). Units were also turned on the Greenford Loop by Class 37 diesels, to combat tyre wear (ref: RCTS’ Railway Observer, July 1998). The Thames Trains franchise ran a shuttle service between Paddington and Hayes & Harlington in the interim, and enough Class 332 units were available by February 1998 to maintain a 30-minute service interval — the full service had resumed by the second week of that month (ref: The Railway Magazine, April 1998).

In the May 1998 edition of The Railway Magazine it was reported that the first four-car Class 332 unit, No. 332012, was delivered to Old Oak Common on 12th March of that year. The same publication remarked that this unit comprised a centre vehicle, No. 72400, which was actually allocated to No. 332001. From May onwards, additional intermediate trailers were delivered to Old Oak Common — mostly by road — to increase the length of existing three-car sets to four (ref: The Railway Magazine, August 1998).

On 25th May 1998, the branch beyond Heathrow Junction to the stations at Terminals 1, 2, and 3, and that at 4, was opened to passenger traffic. Effective from that date, Heathrow Junction station and the line that served it was taken out of use, although it was retained for emergencies until the official opening of the branch occurred in the following month (ref: Branch Line News No. 827, Branch Line Society, 6th June 1998). However, by 4th June 1998, the track serving the station had been lifted (ref: Branch Line News No. 828, Branch Line Society, 20th June 1998). The service frequency was every fifteen minutes between 05:10 and 23:40. The journey time between Paddington and Heathrow Terminals 1, 2, and 3 was fifteen minutes; to Terminal 4 was twenty minutes (ref: Branch Line News No. 827, Branch Line Society, 6th June 1998).

On 23rd June 1998, the official launch ceremony of the full railway service between Paddington and Heathrow Airport’s Terminals 1, 2, 3, and 4, took place (ref: The Railway Magazine, September 1998). From that date onwards, the service was rebranded Heathrow Express from Heathrow Fast Train. Effective from that date, the Standard Class single fare doubled from £5 to £10; the First Class single fare was £20 (ref: Branch Line News No. 829, Branch Line Society, 4th July 1998).

By August 1998, the first eight-car Class 332 formations were running between Paddington and Heathrow (ref: Branch Line News No. 834, Branch Line Society, 26th September 1998). This was achieved by inserting an additional Trailer Standard (TS) into three-car units at Heathrow Express’ Old Oak Common Depot (ref: The Railway Magazine, September 1998). Additionally, a Hotel Express coach service had commenced, connecting with daytime Heathrow Express trains and linking Paddington with hotels around Oxford Street and Marble Arch (ref: Branch Line News No. 834, Branch Line Society, 26th September 1998). On Christmas Day of the same year, Heathrow Express was timetabled to operate a normal weekday service (ref: Branch Line News No. 839, Branch Line Society, 5th December 1998).

By February 1999, Heathrow Express had introduced a Quiet Zone in Class 332 units (ref: The Railway Magazine, April 1999). This zone was formed of the First Class and rear-most sections of the leading carriage from Paddington (ref: Branch Line News No. 850, Branch Line Society, 22nd May 1999). The units were frequently hauled by diesel locomotives on return trips from Old Oak Common via the Greenford Loop to manage wheel profile wear (ref: The Railway Magazine, October 2000).

22nd October 2004

Side-by-side at Paddington are Nos. 332003 and 332010. No. 332003 arrived at Sims Newport on 15th December 2020 for scrapping (ref: RCTS’ The Railway Observer, February 2021). No. 332010 followed on 12th January 2021, by which time No. 332003 had been scrapped (ref: RCTS’ The Railway Observer, March 2021). The Class 332 fleet was fitted with Automatic Train Control (ATC); however, their lack of Train Protection Warning System (TPWS) and Automatic Warning System (AWS) precluded them from re-use elsewhere on the British railway network (ref: The Railway Magazine, February 2021). © David Glasspool

As a result of high demand for travel on Heathrow Express, five of the existing four-vehicle Class 332 units were strengthened with a fifth carriage. The units treated were Nos. 332005 to 332009, and Siemens subcontracted construction of the carriages to CAF of Spain. The lengthening of these units allowed nine-vehicle formations to be run, which increased seating capacity by 14% — each new carriage comprised sixty-four standard class seats. The first new carriage arrived at Old Oak Common by rail via the Chunnel and was handed over on 24th October 2002, and the first lengthened unit was in service in the following December (ref: The Railway Magazine, January 2003). At the same time, upgrades to the entire fleet were underway, which included the provision of revised luggage stacks, following damage caused by heavy bags. Revised arm rests and seat moquette, improved emergency exit windows with a fluorescent surround, and aircraft-style evacuation lighting located on the floor and vestibule areas was installed (ref: The Railway Magazine, January 2003).

In October 2004, Siemens was awarded a nineteen-year contract by BAA PLC to maintain the Class 332 fleet until 2023, which the company had done so at Old Oak Common from the outset. This deal also included the maintenance of the Class 360/2 Desiro EMU fleet that was then under construction for the Heathrow Connect service (ref: Railway Gazette International, 1st March 2005). With reference to the latter, the first train was the 05:13 departure from Paddington on Sunday, 12th June 2005 — running thirty minutes late — to Heathrow Terminals 1, 2, and 3 (ref: Branch Line News No. 996, Branch Line Society, 2nd July 2005). Heathrow Connect had scheduled stops at Ealing Broadway, West Ealing, Hanwell, Southall, and Hayes & Harlington, and were targeted at airport workers and travellers that lived along the route to/from Paddington. Although ultimately part of the same organisation as Heathrow Express, Heathrow Connect was sub-franchised to First Great Western Link (formerly known as Thames Trains) and was advertised at Paddington as only going as far as Hayes and Harlington (ref: Branch Line News No. 996, Branch Line Society, 2nd July 2005). In the August 2005 edition of the RCTS’ The Railway Observer, it was reported that Heathrow Connect livery had been applied to Class 332 No. 332001 as back-up for the Class 360/2 units.

From 2007, travellers on Heathrow Express had access to WiFi on Class 332 units. The system was designed and fitted by Nomad Digital, the company of which had carried out the same work on Southern Railway's Class 377 fleet. The service was provided by T-Mobile and required users to purchased a HotSpot pass to access it; internet coverage was even available in the tunnel section from just beyond Airport Junction to the terminals (ref: The Railway Magazine, July 2007).

On 27th January 2012, unit No. 332002 arrived by road at Railcare’s Wolverton Works, Buckinghamshire, for an internal refurbishment (ref: RCTS’ The Railway Observer, June 2012). This marked the start of a £15 million scheme to rebrand the entire fleet, enhance their interiors, and supply staff with new uniforms (ref: The Railway Magazine, May 2012). The second unit to arrive at Wolverton was No. 332011 on 3rd March which, in addition to refurbishment, also required accident repairs (ref: RCTS’ The Railway Observer, June 2012). The project involved equipping drivers' cabs with new sun blinds, non-slip flooring, emergency lighting, and cup holders; in the carriages, a new public address sound system was fitted, each vestibule equipped with a pair of 26-inch LCD high-definition screens that showed flight and onward connection information, and wheelchair areas compliant with the then current legislation (ref: The Railway Magazine, May 2012). Two classes of travel existed on these units: First and Express Classes. The former was fitted with 1+1 seating and equipped with Axminster Carpets; the latter comprised a mixture of airline and bay seating in 2+2 configuration. The then newly-refurbished interiors were reported at the time as having a decade lifespan (ref: The Railway Magazine, August 2012). A period of thirty-five days was given for the refurbishment of each unit, and the first completed example to be introduced to public service was No. 332003 on 28th May 2012, which coincided with Heathrow Express debuting a new logo (ref: The Railway Magazine, August 2012). The refurbishment works were completed in summer 2013 (ref: The Railway Magazine, September 2013).

22nd October 2004

The "Royal Bank of Scotland" advertising livery, seen here on the side of No. 332010, is the one that the author remembers most from the type’s career between Paddington and the airport. In 2011, this branding started being replaced on the First Class driving vehicles by vinyl advertising for mobile phone operator "Vodafone"; four units had been so treated by June of that year. Vodafone’s design included Union Jacks and six-hundred worldwide place names (ref: The Railway Magazine, August 2011). Fourteen Class 332 units existed; in 2000, it was proposed to temporarily form a fifteenth unit, No. 332015, using a combination of rail-worthy vehicles from Nos. 332001 and 332009. These units had been involved in a depot shunting accident, resulting in damage to two vehicles of unit No. 332001 and one vehicle of unit No. 332009. However, the safety case to temporarily form unit No. 332015 whilst damaged vehicles were repaired could not be obtained (ref: The Railway Magazine, September 2000). © David Glasspool

The Government deposited a Hybrid Bill to Parliament on 25th November 2013, granting powers to construct High Speed 2’s (HS2) Phase 1 (London to West Midlands) (ref: HS2 Phase One: High Speed Rail (London to West Midlands) Bill, UK Government, 25th November 2013). The Bill made a provision for the relocation of Heathrow Express’ Depot at Old Oak Common, because its existing site was required for a new HS2 station. Initially, the east end of the former Eurostar site at North Pole was proposed as the new location of Heathrow Express’ Depot; however, it was determined that this would impact the western side of North Pole, the latter of which was earmarked for the Intercity Express Programme (IEP: the procurement of new stock to replace the InterCity 125 fleet), in addition to interfering with redevelopment in the area. The answer was instead to construct a new depot for Heathrow Express in Langley, Slough (ref: High Speed Rail (London - West MidLands), HS2, UK Government, July 2015).

In 2016, during a routine inspection, cracks were discovered in the underframes of No. 332014. As a result, from 29th February of that year, all Class 332 units were withdrawn from service to verify whether or not other vehicles were impacted. During the interim, five Class 360 units from Heathrow Connect were drafted in to operate the Heathrow Express service, during which reduced fares were offered. A phased return of Class 332 units to service commenced on 11th March 2016 (ref: The Railway Magazine, April 2016).

On 28th March 2018, it was announced that First Group’s Great Western Railway (GWR) franchise would operate Heathrow Express under a management contract running from August of that year to 2028 — until then, Heathrow Airport Ltd had run the non-franchised service completely in-house (ref: Railway Gazette International, 28th March 2018). This marked the beginning of the end for the Class 332 fleet, because the new agreement involved the Heathrow Express being operated by a pool of twelve Class 387 Electrostars from GWR’s fleet, specially modified for the service. A big advantage of this management contract was that expenditure on the proposed new depot for Heathrow Express at Langley was no longer required — the dedicated Class 387 pool was to be maintained at GWR’s Reading Depot (ref: Railway Gazette International, 27th February 2020).

The Class 332 units were last used on Heathrow Express services on 28th December 2020; on the following day, the Class 387 Electrostars took over (ref: The Railway Magazine, January 2021). By this time, the first Class 332 units had already gone for scrap: No. 332014 — the last unit of the 332 series — had been delivered to Sims Scrap Metal Yard, Peterborough, by road between 23rd and 26th November 2020; Nos. 332005 and 332012 went to Sims’ site at Newport, South Wales, on 8th December; and Nos. 332002 and 332003 arrived at the same site on 15th of the same month (ref: RCTS’ The Railway Observer, February 2021).

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