British Rail Class 373

The British Rail Class 373, known in France as the TGV TMST and branded by Eurostar as the Eurostar e300, is a French designed and Anglo-French built electric multiple unit train that is used for Eurostar international high-speed rail services from the United Kingdom to France and Belgium through the Channel Tunnel. Part of the TGV family, it was built with a smaller cross-section to fit the smaller loading gauge in Britain, was originally capable of operating on the UK third rail network, and has extensive fireproofing in case of fire in the tunnel. It is both the second longest——and second fastest train in regular UK passenger service, operating at speeds of up to.
Known as the TransManche Super Train or Cross-channel Super Train before being introduced in 1993, the train is designated Class 373 under the British TOPS classification system and series 373000 TGV in France. It was built by the Anglo-French company GEC-Alsthom at its factories in La Rochelle, Belfort and Washwood Heath and by Brugeoise et Nivelles in Bruges.
Since the introduction of the new units from Siemens in 2015, refurbished versions of the Class 373 or TGV-TMST sets have been officially referred to as e300 by Eurostar to distinguish them from the new Velaro-based e320 fleet.

Types

Two types of Class 373 were constructed:

31 Three Capitals sets consisting of two power cars and 18 passenger coaches, long and have 750 seats: 206 in first class, 544 in standard class. The length of a complete set is dictated by the Channel Tunnel safety regulations, as the distance between consecutive cross passages is. This means that, if a Eurostar train has to stop inside the Tunnel in case of fire or other emergencies, it would always stop adjacent to a cross passage.
Seven North of London sets with 14 coaches and two power cars, they are in length and have 558 seats:.

The North of London sets were intended to provide Regional Eurostar services from continental Europe to and from north of London, using the West Coast Main Line and the East Coast Main Line, but these services never came to fruition because of long proposed journey times and the proliferation of budget airlines offering cheaper fares; there were also issues with the relatively crude design of British Rail overhead electrified lines and problems with finding suitable routes within Greater London.

Construction

The sets were ordered by the railway companies involved: 16 by SNCF, four by NMBS/SNCB, and 18 by British Rail, of which seven were the North of London sets. Upon the privatisation of British Rail, the BR sets were bought by London and Continental Railways, which named its subsidiary Eurostar Limited, now managed by SNCF, LCR and SNCB.
The first Eurostar Class 373 set, 373001/373002, was built at Belfort in 1992. Identified as "PS1", it was formed of two power cars and seven coaches, and was delivered for test running in January 1993. Its first powered runs were between Strasbourg and Mulhouse, and it was transferred to the UK for third-rail DC tests in June 1993. Full-length pre-series train PS2 was completed in May 1993.
To test the 750 V DC third rail shoes needed on the Southern Region lines in Great Britain, an eight-vehicle locomotive-hauled train was used in early 1994, consisting of a locomotive, a converted locomotive acting as a Driving Brake Van, and six carriages from Class 438 multiple units 8007, 8023 and 8028.
An extra power car, numbered 3999, was built as a spare. This was required for a couple of years, when 3999 was renumbered and replaced another power car whilst it underwent rebuilding at Le Landy. It was overhauled and renumbered 3204 in 2016.

Mid-life update

The 22 sets still operating for Eurostar were refurbished in 2004/05 with a new interior, designed by Philippe Starck. The grey-yellow look in standard class and the grey-red look in first class were replaced with a more grey-brown scheme in standard and a grey-burnt orange in first class.
In 2008, Eurostar announced that it was beginning the process to institute a mid-life update, which would not include the Class 373 sets being used by SNCF in France. As a part of the update process, the Italian company Pininfarina was contracted to redesign the interiors; the first refurbished Eurostar was not originally due in service until 2012. The refurbishment programme would also include an engine maintenance and a new external livery. Eurostar later planned for the process to be complete by 2014, allowing the fleet to remain in service beyond 2020, but following additional delays the first refurbished train was not completed until July 2015.

Maintenance

When Eurostar services ran from London, maintenance was carried out at North Pole Depot in West London, next to the Great Western Main Line. Since November 2007, Eurostar maintains its Class 373 fleets at Temple Mills Depot in East London; in France the trains are maintained at Le Landy depot in Paris, and Brussels Forest/Vorst depot.

Current operators

Eurostar

Eurostar originally ran services to and from Waterloo International along existing mainline tracks, until it moved to St Pancras International in November 2007.
In October 2010, Eurostar ordered ten trains from Siemens to run on its existing routes from London to Paris and Brussels as well the newest route to Amsterdam alongside its Class 373 fleet. In 2016, Eurostar announced that it would retain eight Class 373 once the full Class 374 fleet were in service; the rest of the Class 373 were either stored or scrapped.
As of 2020, eight trains had been refurbished with an additional three un-refurbished units in service.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic e300 trains now run from London to Paris and Brussels with the e320s, as well as exclusively operating the winter ski service to Bourg-Saint-Maurice.

Former operators

Great North Eastern Railway

In May 2000, two Regional Eurostar sets were leased to GNER to operate The White Rose services from to. From May 2002, the White Rose was altered to operate to with a third set leased. Sets 33013306 all had GNER livery applied, whereas the rest carried the original Eurostar livery without logos.
The lease expired in December 2005 and they were handed back to Eurostar; they were later used to operate high speed TGV services with SNCF in northern France.
When being used for GNER services, the doors of the first and last carriages were locked out of use at some stations due to the units being too long to stop in the platforms.
Due to restrictions in the power supply on the Hertford Loop Line, only one set was permitted to operate on that route at any one time. They were only allowed to run from King's Cross to York and Leeds because of gauging on the bridges approaching. They were not allowed to travel to because the electrical infrastructure beyond Leeds was insufficient. Manually locked selective door opening was used at shorter platforms.

SNCF

SNCF leased three of Eurostar's "Three Capitals" sets for use on French domestic TGV services. The sets remained in the original Eurostar livery with SNCF branding, and some sets had greyish white or silver front ends. In 2007, SNCF added more Class 373 sets to its fleet by leasing the redundant "North of London" sets from Eurostar. SNCF's lease of the sets was scheduled to last until 2011 with the option to keep the sets running for another two years.
In October 2014, the three "Three Capitals" sets were withdrawn from traffic and stored, having been replaced by TGV Duplex sets. Some have since been scrapped having provided spare parts to other Class 373 sets with remaining sets still stored in Ambérieu, France.

IZY

In November 2018, a Class 373 set consisting of 373213 and 373224 was introduced into service by IZY, the low-cost service that used to run between Paris and Brussels by Thalys, replacing a TGV Réseau train.

Fleet information

Each power car has a four-digit number starting with "3". This designates the train as a Mark 3 TGV. The last digit denotes the country of ownership:

3730xx: UK
3731xx: Belgium
3732xx: France
3733xx: "Regional" and "North of London" Eurostar sets
373999: Spare Powercar

Each half-set is numbered separately.

Class	No. built	Unit number range	Cars per half-set	Description	Operators	Unit numbers	Services operated
Class 373/0	22	373001–373022	10	BR sets	Eurostar
Class 373/1	8	373101-373108	10	NMBS sets	Eurostar	373101-373108
Class 373/2	32	373201-373232	10	SNCF sets	Eurostar
Class 373/2	32	373201-373232	10	SNCF sets	IZY	373213/373224	Paris to Brussels
Class 373/2	32	373201-373232	10	SNCF sets	SNCF		It was withdrawn in October 2014.
Class 373/3	14	373301–373314	8	BR's ' sets	Eurostar	373301-373314	Former SNCF hired to operate.
Spare powercars'''	1	373999			Eurostar	373999	Used as a refurbished and spare vehicle.

Travel classes

Eurostar operates three classes of travel on its Class 373 trains:

Standard class, with two seats each side of the aisle, predominantly airline-style with a small number of seats around tables.
Standard Premier class, with wider seats, two on one side and one on the other, predominantly with tables but with some single and duo seats. A light meal and drinks are included in the fare.
Business Premier class, with the same seats as Standard Premier. A full hot meal and drinks are included in the fare, along with lounge access, fast track access to security checkpoints, the ability to arrive 10 minutes before travel, and other amenities.

As Standard Premier and Business Premier use the same seating, the number of carriages allocated to each class may be varied in line with demand.
For the purpose of travel with Interrail, Eurail, and similar passes, Standard class is considered 2nd class and Standard Premier class is considered 1st class. Business Premier is considered to be above 1st class and pass users cannot travel in Business Premier without purchasing a full public rate ticket.