British Rail Class 170
The British Rail Class 170 Turbostar is a British diesel-hydraulic multiple unit passenger train designed and built by Adtranz, and later by Bombardier Transportation, at Derby Litchurch Lane Works.
The Class 170 was derived from the and DMUs, known as the Networker Turbos, of the 1990s. The first units were introduced to service in May 1999, shortly after the privatisation of British Rail; they have been commonly used to operate regional as well as long-distance services, and to a lesser extent suburban services. A total of 139 units were built, but some were later converted to and units. These trains are currently in use with CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, Northern Trains and ScotRail.
Design
The Class 170 diesel multiple unit is a development of the design used in the and DMUs known as the Networker Turbos and built by British Rail Engineering Limited and later ABB Transportation before that company became part of Bombardier.Notable features shared are the aluminium alloy frame and Voith transmission as well as the general body shape, interior design and door fittings. The final drive is sourced from ZF instead of Gmeinder and the diesel-engine supplier is MTU.
The engine and transmission are located under the body. One bogie per coach is powered. All coaches in the set are powered when in use. The units can work in multiple with trains in the 15X series, i.e. Sprinters and 14X Pacers, and with other units of the same class. They are unable to operate in multiple with units in the 16X series due to different wiring arrangements.
Seating arrangements are of both 2+1 and 2+2 formation, and give a seated passenger capacity of between ~100 and ~200 per three-car set. Two-car sets are also operated.
Subclasses
Class 170 units have been categorised into six sub-classes; the basic specifications remain the same, the differences being the seating arrangements specified by the different operators. Because of the different interior fittings the sub-classes differ in weight from one another by a small amount, up to around 2tonnes.All the sub-classes were built at Derby Litchurch Lane Works either under Adtranz or Bombardier Transportation ownership. The change of ownership occurred in 2001, but early Bombardier units still display ADtranz branding, such as on the window glazing, due to use of backstocked parts.
Current operations
Most units are owned by Porterbrook, although units 170416–424 are owned by Eversholt Rail Group. They are leased to the train operating companies.ScotRail
was at one point the largest operator of the Class 170, with a fleet that formerly comprised 59 three-car sets but has since been reduced to 34 sets. All units are allocated to Edinburgh Haymarket depot.The first Class 170s in Scotland were 24 units built for ScotRail between 1999 and 2001, which had first-class accommodation for use on ScotRail Express services and Aberdeen/Inverness–Glasgow/Edinburgh services. A further ten similar units were built in 20032004 to complete the conversion of ScotRail Express services from Class 158 to Class 170 operation. By the time the second batch entered service the franchise had passed to First ScotRail.
Two standard-class only units were provided for Strathclyde Partnership for Transport services from Glasgow Queen Street in 2001, followed in 20042005 by seven more units for SPT and 12 similar units for Edinburgh commuter services. In December 2008, six of the standard-class-only units were fitted with first-class sections, and two more were fitted with first class in December 2011.
A further four three-car sets with first class accommodation and 'mini-buffets', were obtained from Hull Trains in 2005, bringing the First ScotRail Class 170 fleet up to a peak of 59 three-car sets. The former Hull Trains units were initially used on ScotRail Express services to Inverness, but by 2012 the buffets were out of use and all four units were converted to standard class only.
The nine units built for SPT services were delivered in SPT livery, whereas the rest of the fleet carried First ScotRail livery. In September 2008, the Scottish Government's agency Transport Scotland announced that all ScotRail trains would eventually be repainted in a new blue livery with white Saltire markings on the carriage ends.
In April 2015, the ScotRail franchise passed from First to Abellio, and nine units owned by Eversholt went off-lease. Five of these units remained in Scotland on short-term lease to Abellio ScotRail until their transfer to East Midlands Railway in 2020, whilst the other four units were converted into Class 171s for their new operator Southern.
As a result of the electrification of the Edinburgh to Glasgow Queen Street line in 2018 and the conversion of ScotRail Express services to Aberdeen and Inverness to HSTs in 20182019, the Class 170s are being displaced from ScotRail Express routes. Additionally, electrification of most of the Glasgow Queen Street commuter lines and of the Edinburgh to Dunblane route will see Class 170s displaced from these services once the EMU fleet is fully operational. Some of the surplus Class 170s will be cascaded to other ScotRail services replacing older and units, but 16 units were transferred to Arriva Rail North. The first four of these units moved to Northern in March 2018, followed by a further four in August 2018.
CrossCountry
currently operates 29 Class 170 Turbostars on services between Cardiff Central and Nottingham, and between Birmingham, Leicester, and Stansted Airport. After having been acquired from Central Trains in 2007, these units were refurbished in 2008, with the then-three-car units repainted at Marcroft Engineering, Stoke-on-Trent, the then-two-car units at EWS' Toton depot and the interiors done by Transys Projects, Clacton-on-Sea including the fitting of first-class seating to the Class 170/5s and 170/6s.In 2021, the centre cars from the six formerly three-car ex-West Midlands Railway 170s were transferred to CrossCountry and inserted into six of its formerly two-car units, turning them into three-car units while retaining the CrossCountry driving vehicles' first class, due to the ex-WMR driving vehicles being standard class-only. This resulted in a reconfiguration of CrossCountry's 29 170s from their previous 13 two-car and 16 three-car units, to their current seven two-car and 22 three-car units. The extra centre cars were re-liveried and internally refurbished to match the units they were inserted into.
In February 2025, 170101, the first CrossCountry 170 to receive the operator's second, mid-life refurbishment, re-entered service. This refurbishment includes an exterior repaint in a new livery, an interior repaint and new seats. It also includes new tables and carpets, full-length installation of 3-pin AC power sockets and USB DC power sockets of types A and C, new interior passenger information screens and new CCTV and passenger counting, as well as 'refreshed' toilets.
Northern Trains
began operating the Class 170 in 2018, with a total of 16 three-car units received from Abellio ScotRail by January 2019. These can now be seen operating services between Sheffield and Scarborough via Hull and have diagrams around the Harrogate Loop, on which they share duties with Class 158 DMUs. The units are maintained at Neville Hill TMD and Botanic Gardens TMD, and receive light maintenance at Sheffield.On 1 March 2020, these units transferred to new operator Northern Trains.
East Midlands Railway
currently operates the largest fleet of 170s, which consists of 43 total two-car and three-car sets, even though it has only been a 170 operator since 2020.From 23 March 2020, East Midlands Railway received its first two Class 170 units in the form of three-car 170416 and 170417, when they moved from Abellio ScotRail. The former was seen in EMR livery on 30 April 2020.
Unit 170417, named The Key Worker, was the first unit to enter service, doing so on 2 November 2020 on the Robin Hood line, as part of EMR's soft launch of the class.
Alongside units 170418–170420, as EMR had planned to become the largest operator of the Class 170, a further 23 units arrived from West Midlands Trains as well as 12 from Transport for Wales Rail. The 170s have replaced units of classes and.
In September 2022, three, having been reformed to three-car formations and renumbered to 170422–170424, transferred from Southern to East Midlands Railway. They were then renumbered with 1709xx unit numbers before entering service, in order to emphasise the difference between them and the rest of the fleet, as they had Dellner couplers rather than BSI couplers, so they were not compatible with the rest of the fleet. They regained their identities as 170/4s when BSI couplers were fitted in May 2023 and they can now work with the rest of the fleet instead of being on self contained diagrams.
A refurbishment program for the East Midlands units are ongoing, with the first unit completed its refurbishment and re-entered service.
Former operations
Midland Mainline
was the first operator to order Turbostars, the first being delivered in November 1998 and entering service in May 1999. The Class 170/1 units were built immediately after the units were built for Chiltern Railways. MML ordered a fleet of 17 two-car Class 170 units, although the first ten were subsequently made up of three cars each instead. These were numbered 170101–117. The units were introduced on stopping services from to, and. They were also used on summer Saturday services from London to, which later became a year-round service with summer extension to. Class 170s were also used on direct services between London St Pancras and, these services ended upon the replacement of the Class 170s with new Meridian units due to weight restrictions on the Derwent Valley line to Matlock.In 2004, Midland Mainline introduced new Class 222 Meridian units, which started to replace the Turbostars. As a result, the fleet was transferred to sister company Central Trains. Ten units are three-car units, and the remaining seven units are two-car units. As with the three spot-hire units from Porterbrook, these 17 units had first-class accommodation, which was declassified.