British Rail Class 221
Encyclopedia
The Class 221 Super Voyager is a class of British diesel-electric multiple-unit express trains built by Bombardier Transportation
between 2001 and 2002, entering service on 12 April 2002.
The Class 221 are similar to the Class 220 Voyager
units, but they were built with a tilting
mechanism enabling up to six degrees of tilt to allow higher speeds on curved tracks. They have a maximum speed of 125 mph (55.9 m/s).
Currently these trains are divided between two operators, Virgin Trains
(21 sets) and Arriva CrossCountry
(23 sets). The sets operated by CrossCountry have had their tilting equipment disabled.
The coach bodies, the engines and most of the equipment of the Class 221s are the same as the Class 220s, but the bogie
s are very different: the Class 220 Voyager B5000 bogies have inside bearings which expose the whole of the wheel faces, while the Class 221 SuperVoyager Y36 bogies have a more traditional outside-framed bogie. Unlike the Class 220s, the Class 221s were built with an hydraulic-actuated tilting system to run at high speed around bends, though this has now been removed on the 23 sets operated by CrossCountry.
Each coach weighs between 55 and 57 tonnes, with a total train weight of 281.9 tonnes for a 5-car set (227 tonnes for a 4-car set). The trains have air-operated (pneumatic) and rheostatic brakes, with an emergency stopping distance of 350m at 60 mph (96.6 km/h).
All Class 221 units are maintained at the dedicated Central Rivers TMD
near Burton-on-Trent.
There are 44 Class 221 trains, numbered 221 101 to 221 144; the first forty are five-car trains originally operated by Virgin Cross Country, and the remaining four were four-car sets, originally intended for Virgin West Coast North Wales services.
In November 2010, Virgin Trains reformed its three four-car sets into two five-car sets and a residual spare two-car set by inserting the two intermediate (non-driving) cars from 221144 into 221142 and 221143, giving 20 five-car sets (and two spare driving cars). This was aimed at providing more flexibility and consistency in operating Birmingham-Scotland and London-North Wales services.
All vehicles are air-conditioned and fitted with at-seat audio entertainment systems and power sockets for laptop computers and mobile-phone charging. First-class accommodation has 2+1 seating, standard class 2+2 seating. Virgin Trains' units are fitted with CCTV.
The trains have been criticised for providing insufficient space for luggage and bicycles. Also, because the units are designed to tilt, the carriages have a tapered profile that narrows towards roof level, resulting in a less spacious interior than the conventional carriages they replaced.
The formation and capacity of each unit depends on the operator.
'*' The number of seats on Virgin sets depends on the use of coach D; if used on North Wales services it provides extra first-class seats, on Anglo-Scottish services coach D is standard-class accommodation.
was the operator of all Class 221s, which it used on Cross Country and West Coast Main Line services as well as on the North Wales coast line.
On 11 November 2007 CrossCountry
obtained the Cross Country Route rail franchise; the trains were shared in a common pool between the two companies until December 2007, when 221 114 to 221 141 were transferred to CrossCountry, the remainder (221 101 to 221 113, 221 142 to 221 144) staying with Virgin West Coast. Five units, 221 114 to 221 118, were transferred back to Virgin Trains in December 2008.
uses the Class 221 units primarily from Birmingham New Street to Scotland (an example of the use of diesel trains entirely "under the wires") and from London Euston to Chester and North Wales.
The trains to and from Scotland operate as single units and alternate between Glasgow Central
and Edinburgh Waverley (in turn alternating with TransPennine Express trains to and from Manchester Airport). When longer trains are needed for some of these services during the summer, a Pendolino will run through from and to London Euston, and the Super Voyager then fills in for it on the London to West Midlands route.
The trains on the North Wales route sometimes work in pairs between London Euston and Chester and terminate variously at Chester, Holyhead
, Bangor or Wrexham.
in storm conditions, inundating the resistor banks and causing the control software to shut down the whole train. This problem was fixed by a software upgrade to the control software.
On 8 December 2005, 221 125 suffered an exhaust fire at Starcross
. Other members of the Voyager class suffered similar fires in the 2005-2006 period due to an incorrectly performed engine overhaul.
On 25 September 2006, 221 136 collided with a car on the track at Moor Lane, Copmanthorpe, North Yorkshire. The 14:25 Plymouth to Edinburgh was decelerating on its approach to York station at 9pm when it collided with the car, which had crashed through a fence on to the line. Despite being derailed in the 100 mph crash, the train remained upright. Nobody on board was injured.
{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
|-
||221 101||Louis Blériot
||221 123†||Henry Hudson
|-
||221 102||John Cabot
||221 124†||Charles Lindbergh
|-
||221 103||Christopher Columbus
||221 125†||Henry the Navigator
|-
||221 104||Sir John Franklin
||221 126†||Captain Robert Scott
|-
||221 105||William Baffin
||221 127†||Wright Brothers
|-
||221 106||Willem Barents
||221 128†||Captain John Smith
|-
||221 107||Sir Martin Frobisher
||221 129†||George Vancouver
|-
||221 108||Sir Ernest Shackleton
||221 130†||Michael Palin
|-
||221 109||Marco Polo
||221 131†||Edgar Evans
|-
||221 110||James Cook
||221 132†||William Speirs Bruce
|-
||221 111||Roald Amundsen
||221 133†||Alexander Selkirk
|-
||221 112||Ferdinand Magellan
||221 134†||Mary Kingsley
|-
||221 113||Sir Walter Raleigh
||221 135†||Donald Campbell
|-
||221 114||Sir Francis Drake
||221 136†||Yuri Gagarin
|-
||221 115||Polmadie Depot - formerly Sir Francis Chichester||221 137†||Mayflower Pilgrims
|-
||221 116||David Livingstone
||221 138†||Thor Heyerdahl
|-
||221 117||Sir Henry Morton Stanley
||221 139†||Leif Eriksson
|-
||221 118||Mungo Park
||221 140†||Vasco Da Gama
|-
||221 119†||Amelia Earhart
||221 141*†||Amerigo Vespucci
|-
||221 120†||Amy Johnson
||221 142*||BOMBARDIER Voyager
- formerly Matthew Flinders
|-
||221 121†||Charles Darwin
||221 143*||Auguste Picard
|-
||221 122†||Doctor Who
||221 144*||Now only 2 coaches remain - formerly BOMBARDIER Voyager
|}
The Class 220s and 221s transferred to CrossCountry in November 2007 have had their names removed.
'†' Refers to SuperVoyagers transferred to CrossCountry.
'*' Refers to units built as 4-coach units originally intended for Virgin West Coast Services.
!Class
!Operator
!Number of Trains
!Built
!Cars per Set
!Unit numbers.
|-
|rowspan=4|Class 221
|rowspan=2|Virgin Trains
|rowspan=2 align=center|21
|rowspan=4 align=center|2001–2002
|align=center|5
|221101 - 221118
221142 - 221143
|-
|align=center|2
|221144
|-
|rowspan=2|CrossCountry
|rowspan=2 align=center|23
|align=center|5
|221119 - 221140
|-
|align=center|4
|221141
|-
|}
Bombardier Transportation
Bombardier Transportation is the rail equipment division of the Canadian firm, Bombardier Inc. Bombardier Transportation is one of the world's largest companies in the rail-equipment manufacturing and servicing industry. Its headquarters are in Berlin, Germany....
between 2001 and 2002, entering service on 12 April 2002.
The Class 221 are similar to the Class 220 Voyager
British Rail Class 220
The Class 220 Voyager are a class of diesel-electric high-speed multiple-unit trains built by Bombardier Transportation in 2000 and 2001....
units, but they were built with a tilting
Tilting train
A tilting train is a train that has a mechanism enabling increased speed on regular rail tracks. As a train rounds a curve at speed, objects inside the train experience centrifugal force. This can cause packages to slide about or seated passengers to feel squashed by the outboard armrest due to...
mechanism enabling up to six degrees of tilt to allow higher speeds on curved tracks. They have a maximum speed of 125 mph (55.9 m/s).
Currently these trains are divided between two operators, Virgin Trains
Virgin Trains
Virgin Trains is a train operating company in the United Kingdom. It operates long-distance passenger services on the West Coast Main Line between London, the West Midlands, North West England, North Wales and Scotland...
(21 sets) and Arriva CrossCountry
CrossCountry
CrossCountry is the brand name of XC Trains Ltd., a British train operating company owned by Arriva...
(23 sets). The sets operated by CrossCountry have had their tilting equipment disabled.
Details
The Class 221s were produced as 5- or 4-coach sets. Each coach is equipped with a Cummins QSK19 diesel engine producing 560 kW at 1,800 rpm, driving an electrical generator which powers two motors, each driving one (inner) axle per bogie via a cardan shaft and final drive. 1200 miles (1,931.2 km) can be travelled between refuellings.The coach bodies, the engines and most of the equipment of the Class 221s are the same as the Class 220s, but the bogie
Bogie
A bogie is a wheeled wagon or trolley. In mechanics terms, a bogie is a chassis or framework carrying wheels, attached to a vehicle. It can be fixed in place, as on a cargo truck, mounted on a swivel, as on a railway carriage/car or locomotive, or sprung as in the suspension of a caterpillar...
s are very different: the Class 220 Voyager B5000 bogies have inside bearings which expose the whole of the wheel faces, while the Class 221 SuperVoyager Y36 bogies have a more traditional outside-framed bogie. Unlike the Class 220s, the Class 221s were built with an hydraulic-actuated tilting system to run at high speed around bends, though this has now been removed on the 23 sets operated by CrossCountry.
Each coach weighs between 55 and 57 tonnes, with a total train weight of 281.9 tonnes for a 5-car set (227 tonnes for a 4-car set). The trains have air-operated (pneumatic) and rheostatic brakes, with an emergency stopping distance of 350m at 60 mph (96.6 km/h).
All Class 221 units are maintained at the dedicated Central Rivers TMD
Central Rivers TMD
Central Rivers TMD is a railway locomotive maintenance depot, located in Burton on Trent, England.Built by Bombardier Transportation to create a single-point maintenance facility for their diesel multiple unit of class British Rail Class 220, 221 and 222, it came into operation on 8 September 2001...
near Burton-on-Trent.
Formation and passenger facilities
There are 44 Class 221 trains, numbered 221 101 to 221 144; the first forty are five-car trains originally operated by Virgin Cross Country, and the remaining four were four-car sets, originally intended for Virgin West Coast North Wales services.
In November 2010, Virgin Trains reformed its three four-car sets into two five-car sets and a residual spare two-car set by inserting the two intermediate (non-driving) cars from 221144 into 221142 and 221143, giving 20 five-car sets (and two spare driving cars). This was aimed at providing more flexibility and consistency in operating Birmingham-Scotland and London-North Wales services.
All vehicles are air-conditioned and fitted with at-seat audio entertainment systems and power sockets for laptop computers and mobile-phone charging. First-class accommodation has 2+1 seating, standard class 2+2 seating. Virgin Trains' units are fitted with CCTV.
The trains have been criticised for providing insufficient space for luggage and bicycles. Also, because the units are designed to tilt, the carriages have a tapered profile that narrows towards roof level, resulting in a less spacious interior than the conventional carriages they replaced.
The formation and capacity of each unit depends on the operator.
| Operator | Cars per set | First Class Seats | Standard Class Seats | Bicycle storage | Formation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virgin West Coast | 5 | 26 (84)* | 236 (178)* | 4 | Coach A Quiet Zone, Coach D - Standard/First Dual Use Coach with Shop, Coach E First Class. |
| CrossCountry | 26 | 252 | 3 | Coach A First Class, Coach F Quiet Zone, at seat catering service. | |
| CrossCountry | 4 | 26 | 182 | 3 | Coach A First Class, Coach F Quiet Zone, at seat catering service. |
'*' The number of seats on Virgin sets depends on the use of coach D; if used on North Wales services it provides extra first-class seats, on Anglo-Scottish services coach D is standard-class accommodation.
Operations
On their introduction in 2002, Virgin TrainsVirgin Trains
Virgin Trains is a train operating company in the United Kingdom. It operates long-distance passenger services on the West Coast Main Line between London, the West Midlands, North West England, North Wales and Scotland...
was the operator of all Class 221s, which it used on Cross Country and West Coast Main Line services as well as on the North Wales coast line.
On 11 November 2007 CrossCountry
CrossCountry
CrossCountry is the brand name of XC Trains Ltd., a British train operating company owned by Arriva...
obtained the Cross Country Route rail franchise; the trains were shared in a common pool between the two companies until December 2007, when 221 114 to 221 141 were transferred to CrossCountry, the remainder (221 101 to 221 113, 221 142 to 221 144) staying with Virgin West Coast. Five units, 221 114 to 221 118, were transferred back to Virgin Trains in December 2008.
CrossCountry
CrossCountry's Class 221 trains are used alongside Class 220 units and HSTs on the routes inherited from Virgin Trains. Since these routes are not cleared for tilting operation, the company in 2008 first locked the tilting equipment out of use and shortly afterwards isolated it altogether, replacing the hydraulic rams with fixed tie-bars. This change was made to improve reliability and reduce maintenance costs.Virgin Trains
Virgin TrainsVirgin Trains
Virgin Trains is a train operating company in the United Kingdom. It operates long-distance passenger services on the West Coast Main Line between London, the West Midlands, North West England, North Wales and Scotland...
uses the Class 221 units primarily from Birmingham New Street to Scotland (an example of the use of diesel trains entirely "under the wires") and from London Euston to Chester and North Wales.
The trains to and from Scotland operate as single units and alternate between Glasgow Central
Glasgow Central
Glasgow Central has more than one meaning:*Glasgow Central railway station, a railway station in Glasgow, Scotland*Glasgow Central , a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, from 1885 to 1997 and from 2005 to present...
and Edinburgh Waverley (in turn alternating with TransPennine Express trains to and from Manchester Airport). When longer trains are needed for some of these services during the summer, a Pendolino will run through from and to London Euston, and the Super Voyager then fills in for it on the London to West Midlands route.
The trains on the North Wales route sometimes work in pairs between London Euston and Chester and terminate variously at Chester, Holyhead
Holyhead railway station
Holyhead railway station serves the town of Holyhead on Holy Island, Anglesey. It is the western terminus of the North Wales Coast Line and is managed by Arriva Trains Wales, although Virgin Trains also serves it....
, Bangor or Wrexham.
Technical problems and incidents
Units have been stopped due to waves breaking over the sea wall at DawlishSouth Devon Railway sea wall
The South Devon Railway sea wall is situated on the south coast of Devon in England. It is probably the most photographed section of railway in the United Kingdom as a footpath runs alongside the railway between Dawlish Warren and Dawlish, and another footpath forms a continuation to the sea front...
in storm conditions, inundating the resistor banks and causing the control software to shut down the whole train. This problem was fixed by a software upgrade to the control software.
On 8 December 2005, 221 125 suffered an exhaust fire at Starcross
Starcross
Starcross is a riverside village with a population of 1,780, situated on the west bank of the estuary of the River Exe in Teignbridge in the English county of Devon...
. Other members of the Voyager class suffered similar fires in the 2005-2006 period due to an incorrectly performed engine overhaul.
On 25 September 2006, 221 136 collided with a car on the track at Moor Lane, Copmanthorpe, North Yorkshire. The 14:25 Plymouth to Edinburgh was decelerating on its approach to York station at 9pm when it collided with the car, which had crashed through a fence on to the line. Despite being derailed in the 100 mph crash, the train remained upright. Nobody on board was injured.
Naming
Some of the Virgin-operated Class 221 SuperVoyagers were named after famous voyagers, some fictional and some real, as follows:{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
|-
||221 101||Louis Blériot
Louis Blériot
Louis Charles Joseph Blériot was a French aviator, inventor and engineer. In 1909 he completed the first flight across a large body of water in a heavier-than-air craft, when he crossed the English Channel. For this achievement, he received a prize of £1,000...
||221 123†||Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson was an English sea explorer and navigator in the early 17th century. Hudson made two attempts on behalf of English merchants to find a prospective Northeast Passage to Cathay via a route above the Arctic Circle...
|-
||221 102||John Cabot
John Cabot
John Cabot was an Italian navigator and explorer whose 1497 discovery of parts of North America is commonly held to have been the first European encounter with the continent of North America since the Norse Vikings in the eleventh century...
||221 124†||Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist.Lindbergh, a 25-year-old U.S...
|-
||221 103||Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
||221 125†||Henry the Navigator
|-
||221 104||Sir John Franklin
John Franklin
Rear-Admiral Sir John Franklin KCH FRGS RN was a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer. Franklin also served as governor of Tasmania for several years. In his last expedition, he disappeared while attempting to chart and navigate a section of the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic...
||221 126†||Captain Robert Scott
Robert Falcon Scott
Captain Robert Falcon Scott, CVO was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901–04, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–13...
|-
||221 105||William Baffin
William Baffin
William Baffin was an English navigator and explorer. Nothing is known of his early life, but it is conjectured that he was born in London of humble origin, and gradually raised himself by his diligence and perseverance...
||221 127†||Wright Brothers
Wright brothers
The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur , were two Americans credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903...
|-
||221 106||Willem Barents
Willem Barents
Willem Barentsz was a Dutch navigator, cartographer, explorer, and a leader of early expeditions to the far north....
||221 128†||Captain John Smith
John Smith of Jamestown
Captain John Smith Admiral of New England was an English soldier, explorer, and author. He was knighted for his services to Sigismund Bathory, Prince of Transylvania and friend Mózes Székely...
|-
||221 107||Sir Martin Frobisher
Martin Frobisher
Sir Martin Frobisher was an English seaman who made three voyages to the New World to look for the Northwest Passage...
||221 129†||George Vancouver
George Vancouver
Captain George Vancouver RN was an English officer of the British Royal Navy, best known for his 1791-95 expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern Pacific Coast regions, including the coasts of contemporary Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon...
|-
||221 108||Sir Ernest Shackleton
Ernest Shackleton
Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, CVO, OBE was a notable explorer from County Kildare, Ireland, who was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration...
||221 130†||Michael Palin
Michael Palin
Michael Edward Palin, CBE FRGS is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries....
|-
||221 109||Marco Polo
Marco Polo
Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant traveler from the Venetian Republic whose travels are recorded in Il Milione, a book which did much to introduce Europeans to Central Asia and China. He learned about trading whilst his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, travelled through Asia and apparently...
||221 131†||Edgar Evans
Edgar Evans
Petty Officer Edgar Evans was a member of the Polar Party on Robert Falcon Scott's companions on his ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition to the South Pole in 1911–1912...
|-
||221 110||James Cook
James Cook
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...
||221 132†||William Speirs Bruce
William Speirs Bruce
William Speirs Bruce was a London-born Scottish naturalist, polar scientist and oceanographer who organised and led the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition to the South Orkney Islands and the Weddell Sea. Among other achievements, the expedition established the first permanent weather station...
|-
||221 111||Roald Amundsen
Roald Amundsen
Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He led the first Antarctic expedition to reach the South Pole between 1910 and 1912 and he was the first person to reach both the North and South Poles. He is also known as the first to traverse the Northwest Passage....
||221 133†||Alexander Selkirk
Alexander Selkirk
Alexander Selkirk was a Scottish sailor who spent four years as a castaway when he was marooned on an uninhabited island. It is probable that his travels provided the inspiration for Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe....
|-
||221 112||Ferdinand Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer. He was born in Sabrosa, in northern Portugal, and served King Charles I of Spain in search of a westward route to the "Spice Islands" ....
||221 134†||Mary Kingsley
Mary Kingsley
Mary Henrietta Kingsley was an English writer and explorer who greatly influenced European ideas about Africa and African people.-Early life:Kingsley was born in Islington, London on 13 October 1862...
|-
||221 113||Sir Walter Raleigh
Walter Raleigh
Sir Walter Raleigh was an English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer. He is also well known for popularising tobacco in England....
||221 135†||Donald Campbell
Donald Campbell
Donald Malcolm Campbell, CBE was a British speed record breaker who broke eight world speed records in the 1950s and 1960s...
|-
||221 114||Sir Francis Drake
Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake, Vice Admiral was an English sea captain, privateer, navigator, slaver, and politician of the Elizabethan era. Elizabeth I of England awarded Drake a knighthood in 1581. He was second-in-command of the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588. He also carried out the...
||221 136†||Yuri Gagarin
Yuri Gagarin
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space, when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on April 12, 1961....
|-
||221 115||Polmadie Depot - formerly Sir Francis Chichester||221 137†||Mayflower Pilgrims
|-
||221 116||David Livingstone
David Livingstone
David Livingstone was a Scottish Congregationalist pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society and an explorer in Africa. His meeting with H. M. Stanley gave rise to the popular quotation, "Dr...
||221 138†||Thor Heyerdahl
Thor Heyerdahl
Thor Heyerdahl was a Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer with a background in zoology and geography. He became notable for his Kon-Tiki expedition, in which he sailed by raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands...
|-
||221 117||Sir Henry Morton Stanley
Henry Morton Stanley
Sir Henry Morton Stanley, GCB, born John Rowlands , was a Welsh journalist and explorer famous for his exploration of Africa and his search for David Livingstone. Upon finding Livingstone, Stanley allegedly uttered the now-famous greeting, "Dr...
||221 139†||Leif Eriksson
|-
||221 118||Mungo Park
Mungo Park (explorer)
Mungo Park was a Scottish explorer of the African continent. He was credited as being the first Westerner to encounter the Niger River.-Early life:...
||221 140†||Vasco Da Gama
Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the Age of Discovery and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India...
|-
||221 119†||Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart was a noted American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first woman to receive the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for becoming the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean...
||221 141*†||Amerigo Vespucci
Amerigo Vespucci
Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer. The Americas are generally believed to have derived their name from the feminized Latin version of his first name.-Expeditions:...
|-
||221 120†||Amy Johnson
Amy Johnson
Amy Johnson CBE, was a pioneering English aviator. Flying solo or with her husband, Jim Mollison, Johnson set numerous long-distance records during the 1930s...
||221 142*||BOMBARDIER Voyager
Bombardier Transportation
Bombardier Transportation is the rail equipment division of the Canadian firm, Bombardier Inc. Bombardier Transportation is one of the world's largest companies in the rail-equipment manufacturing and servicing industry. Its headquarters are in Berlin, Germany....
- formerly Matthew Flinders
Matthew Flinders
Captain Matthew Flinders RN was one of the most successful navigators and cartographers of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh, circumnavigated Australia and encouraged the use of that name for the continent, which had previously been...
|-
||221 121†||Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
||221 143*||Auguste Picard
|-
||221 122†||Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
||221 144*||Now only 2 coaches remain - formerly BOMBARDIER Voyager
Bombardier Transportation
Bombardier Transportation is the rail equipment division of the Canadian firm, Bombardier Inc. Bombardier Transportation is one of the world's largest companies in the rail-equipment manufacturing and servicing industry. Its headquarters are in Berlin, Germany....
|}
The Class 220s and 221s transferred to CrossCountry in November 2007 have had their names removed.
'†' Refers to SuperVoyagers transferred to CrossCountry.
'*' Refers to units built as 4-coach units originally intended for Virgin West Coast Services.
Fleet details
{| class="wikitable"!Class
!Operator
!Number of Trains
!Built
!Cars per Set
!Unit numbers.
|-
|rowspan=4|Class 221
|rowspan=2|Virgin Trains
Virgin Trains
Virgin Trains is a train operating company in the United Kingdom. It operates long-distance passenger services on the West Coast Main Line between London, the West Midlands, North West England, North Wales and Scotland...
|rowspan=2 align=center|21
|rowspan=4 align=center|2001–2002
|align=center|5
|221101 - 221118
221142 - 221143
|-
|align=center|2
|221144
|-
|rowspan=2|CrossCountry
CrossCountry
CrossCountry is the brand name of XC Trains Ltd., a British train operating company owned by Arriva...
|rowspan=2 align=center|23
|align=center|5
|221119 - 221140
|-
|align=center|4
|221141
|-
|}
See also
- List of high speed trains
- Class 222 MeridianBritish Rail Class 222The British Rail Class 222 is a diesel-electric multiple unit high-speed train capable of . Twenty-seven units have been built by Bombardier Transportation....
- Class 390 PendolinoBritish Rail Class 390The Class 390 Pendolino is a type of train used in Great Britain. They are electric multiple units using Fiat's tilting train pendolino technology and built by Alstom. Fifty-three 9-car units were originally built for Virgin Trains from 2001 to 2004 for operation on the West Coast Main Line , with...
External links
- Virgin Trains Seating Plan for Virgin Trains Super Voyagers Page 2
- Testing the Class 221s
- Railway Herald Issue 150 page 6 contains an image of a reconfigured Super Voyager.