New Elizabeth line trains in production
posted on 27th Oct 2025 17:54
Construction has begun on the first of an additional 10 Aventra units to be introduced to the Elizabeth line. The Class 345 Aventra EMUs are being built by Alstom's Derby factory, supporting jobs in the city which has been a railway hub since 1839. These new trains are being built in the East Midlands to support both growing demand for the hugely popular line and the government’s growth agenda.
Since opening in 2022, the Elizabeth line has had a transformational effect on travel in London and quickly become the UK’s single busiest railway service, with an average of 800,000 journeys now made on the service each day. The new trains - which were ordered with UK Government funding - will allow Transport for London (TfL) to increase capacity on the existing line, further driving the economy by boosting connections and serving HS2’s new Old Oak Common station in the future.
A new Elizabeth line evaluation report has revealed the extent to which the public have embraced the city’s new railway line since it opened, and its positive impact on housebuilding and employment. The analysis reveals that the Elizabeth line is driving up public transport use in the capital, supporting the Mayor’s aim for 80 % of all trips in London to be made on foot, by cycle or using public transport by 2041. Since the line opened an additional 71,000 trips are estimated to have been made across London’s transport network each weekday. In Abbey Wood in the southeast, an estimated 16 per cent of trips on public transport beginning in this area wouldn’t have occurred without the Elizabeth line.
Customers have also benefitted from an 11 % drop in step-free journey times, based on average public transport journeys. All Elizabeth line stations between Paddington and Woolwich have step-free access from street to train, and all other stations are step-free from street to platform. Last year, TfL published an ambitious new customer plan to help create a fairer, more accessible and inclusive transport network for everyone. The plan, Equity in Motion, commits to more than 100 new and ambitious actions to further build on TfL and the Mayor’s ongoing efforts to create a fairer and safer London.
Trips to most London stations and employment hubs from Abbey Wood station have been reduced by 20 to 40 minutes, and journey times between Canary Wharf and Abbey Wood have been cut by almost half.
Rob Whyte, Managing Director UK and Ireland at Alstom, said: “Our historic Derby Litchurch Lane Works are crucial to the country’s economic growth, being the only UK factory where you can design, engineer, build and test a train from scratch for both domestic and export markets. Therefore, not only will these new Aventra trains enable Transport for London to continue successfully operating the Elizabeth line as passenger demand grows, they continue to support high-value manufacturing and supply chain jobs in the East Midlands and across the UK. We look forward to our new Elizabeth line trains joining the existing fleet, which are maintained by us around-the-clock at our state-of-the-art depot at Old Oak Common.”
David Shore, Managing Director at Time 24, said: “We are absolutely delighted to be awarded the contract to provide the wiring for the ten new nine-car Aventra trains Alstom are manufacturing in Derby for Transport for London. This comes at a time when the new rolling stock market in the UK had been quiet, and it has allowed us to create jobs and invest back in the business. We are proud to be involved in what has become the single busiest railway service in the UK - the Elizabeth line.”
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