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UK Passenger Rail NEWEST High Speed Train ... OM the Rails Riding Britain's NEWEST High Speed Train The East Midlands Railway Class 810 'Aurora'! PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSCQu36Fe2I
Riding Britain's NEWEST High Speed Train - The East Midlands Railway Class 810 'Aurora'! OM the Rails 40.3K subscribers Dec 6, 2025 SHEFFIELD STATION Earlier this week, EMR finally introduced their newest intercity train after a 3.5 year delay - these 125mph 'Aurora' units really impressed me, though they do have their flaws. Join me as I take you for a look at the Midland Main Line's fleet of the future, enjoy! Journey details: Date of travel - December 2025 Operator - East Midlands Railway (EMR) Train type - Class 810 'Aurora' Class of travel - First Origin - Sheffield Destination - London St Pancras International Price - £86.25/€98.74/$115.03 )see video for details) Journey time - 2 hours, 15 minutes Distance - 166 miles Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoyed the video! Music from EpidemicSound and is used under license. A huge thanks to ‪@downonthestour‬ who filmed my departure from Sheffield - do check out his channel for some great clips! Follow me on social media: BlueSky - https://bsky.app/profile/omtherails.b... Instagram - / omtherails TikTok (posts coming soon!) - https://www.tiktok.com/@om.the.rails?... Support the channel here: https://ko-fi.com/omtherails Link to the EMR menus: https://www.eastmidlandsrailway.co.uk... #class810 #aurora #emr #eastmidlandsrailway #tripreport #vlog #trains #uk #sheffield #london #londonstpancras #stpancrasinternational #stpancras #railway Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 00:32 Sheffield Station & One Small Problem! 03:05 Arrival of the Aurora, Boarding & Route Information 06:18 Departure & First Class Service 08:07 First Class Interior 09:35 Diesel Mode on the Midland Main Line 11:57 Leicester & Power Switch 13:25 Walkthrough 15:13 Electric Mode on the Midland Main Line 16:23 Journey Summary, Conclusions & Pricing 17:20 Arrival into London & Outro - Thanks for Watching! How this was made Auto-dubbed Journey aboard Britain's newest high-speed train, the EMR Class 810 'Aurora,' from Sheffield to London. Explore both First and Standard class interiors, comparing them to older models. The trip includes onboard service details and observations about various stations along the route. My worldview is informed by some 65+ years of adulthood during which time I have had the opportunity to visit and work in more than fifty (50) different countries around the world. Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess Transcript 0:00 Intro This is the EMR Aurora, the new face of East Midlands Railway’s flagship intercity services from London to Nottingham and Sheffield and today, I’m giving you a look inside these brand new trains, checking out the interiors in both first and standard class, what I liked and what can be improved on as we travel from Sheffield, the Steel City to the British Capital London. Now join me as the journey continues! What better place to start this journey than from my hometown of 0:32 Sheffield Station & One Small Problem! Sheffield? The station here has been operational since 1870 as the fifth and last station to be built in the city centre and gradually worked its way up to the city’s principal station to most major cities in England and Scotland. The station has received numerous refurbishments over the years including one that was completed recently, but nevertheless much of its original design and architecture still remains. There are also numerous eateries and shops here, my personal favourite of course being the Rails of Sheffield 1:01 model railway store, which opened just last weekend. This all makes Sheffield station is well suited as the second busiest station in Yorkshire & the Humber, seeing 9.4m passengers in 2024, all of course being greeted by the statue of Miles, EMR’s beloved mascot! Our train this morning is the 14:00 East Midlands Railway “Aurora” service to London St Pancras International, departing from Platform 2. Unlike other railway stations in the UK, there are no barriers impeding your progress, primarily due to the footbridge here which provides a useful link for pedestrians to Norfolk Park and the Sheffield Supertram. This also gives us a good vantage point of the platforms, including local Northern services across the North of England and long-distance TransPennine services to Manchester and Liverpool, which will be coming to the channel soon! Sheffield did used to have a first class lounge on platform 2 a few years back which I could in theory use with my first class ticket, 2:00 but it was sadly closed due to Covid back in 2020 and hasn’t reopened since – it’s quite rainy this afternoon too! East Midlands Railway (EMR), who also manage the station, operate both long-distance “EMR Regional” and “EMR Intercity” branded services to and from London, which run twice hourly using 5 and 7 car Class 222 “Meridian” diesel multiple units, an upgraded model of the Bombardier Voyager units used by CrossCountry on their South West to Scotland services. Sadly their time under EMR has left them in quite a state and some have already gone off-lease, resulting in regular short-formations and poor service reliability. However, all of this is about to change… …or so I thought – annoyingly, the Aurora developed a fault en route to Sheffield and was subsequently cancelled! This is actually my second attempt at riding this train, the first one being swapped for the older Meridian for the same reason, so I headed back home to try again the following day… 3:02 As the saying goes, third time’s the charm - our train arrives from London around 20 minutes before 3:08 Arrival of the Aurora, Boarding & Route Information departure in its striking aubergine livery. This is the Class 810, which EMR have branded as “Aurora” following a public competition in late-2020. A total of 33 5 car sets are being built by Hitachi Rail at their Newton Aycliffe facility in Northern England – construction started in 2021, however the Covid-19 pandemic and numerous faults found during testing had pushed their initial introduction back by over 3 years, the first one originally having meant to enter service in mid-2022 and others now at various stages of completion. These trains are part of Hitachi’s “A-Train” platform used on Intercity services all over the UK which are infamously known for their poorly-designed interiors and overall comfort from a passenger perspective. The 810s however feature a number of key differences to the core design, notably the cab front and shorter 24m body profile compared to that of the 4:02 26m 80X units owing to platform constraints at London St Pancras. This is still longer than the existing Meridians these are replacing which were built with 23m bodyshells so provide greater overall capacity as we’ll see shortly. These units are also bi-mode, meaning they’re capable of running on diesel on the unelectrified sections of the MML for around half of our journey today and switch to electric mode for the remaining portion towards London. Unlike the previous bi-modes Hitachi has built, each 810 has four diesel power packs fitted to allow equivalent or higher performance to a 222 in diesel mode, which has exceptional acceleration for a DMU. Boarding our train highlights the first negative – level boarding is not available in line with the previous Hitachi UK models, a platform ramp instead being deployed to let this passenger off, which is a shame as it seems UK railways are still significantly behind on this front! 5:02 There are a total of 301 seats on the Auroras, 47 of which are first class in a 2+1 configuration; unlike most of the other AT300 operators EMR had much more influence on the interior design and my first impressions are VERY good. Certainly a refreshing change to the lack of cleanliness of the Meridians, which I’m sure many of you agree with me on! One downside though is that there are only a small number of solo seats for anyone travelling on their own, as most people here were - there are no seat reservations on the 810s yet, so this one here on the left hand side will do… The Sheffield to London route has all of its stops on the first half of our journey through the East Midlands, with calls at Chesterfield and Derby; as our service is the slower of the two each hour, we make additional calls before Leicester before running non-stop to London St Pancras on electric 6:02 mode for the last hour of our journey. Our trip time this afternoon is expected to take 2 hours and 9 minutes to cover a distance of 166 miles. We leave Sheffield two minutes late at 14:02, 6:21 Departure & First Class Service so far so good, especially with our rapid acceleration… Not long after navigating the suburbs of the city, we pass Dore & Totley which recently underwent a major renovation programme to add a second platform to reduce congestion on the busy Sheffield to Manchester line just to the right – we however take the 7:08 Midland Main Line south towards London and as we do so, the onboard food service begins. One other key major difference to the Meridians is the Auroras lack a buffet car, which gradually fell into disuse on the former since the 2010s. Service is instead provided by a trolley which is complimentary in first class but you have to pay for it in standard. I went for the EMR-branded shortbread, a bottle of water and orange juice as I’d just had lunch… 10ish minutes later we arrive into our first stop of Chesterfield, a Derbyshire market town known for its Anglican church which is notable for its crooked spire, which can be seen just to the right as we leave the station; this design is believed to be due to the timbers of the spire not being properly seasoned when built, causing them to twist and shrink as they dried overtime. 8:00 Anyway, now that we’re back on the move again let’s check out the interior here in first class, and perhaps the biggest question is… is the seat comfy? Well despite the improved padding 8:10 First Class Interior and seat comfort to the older 80Xs, I’d say this is a downgrade to the Meridians their replacing, but still acceptable. I do however like the way it “hugs” you when you’re sitting down as well as the embedded “first class” name on the headrest! Each seat in first class has a 3 pin UK power socket and a USB A socket, which is a shame as even the refurbished 170s have USB C sockets! These can be found below the foldable armrests in the middle of the duo seats and on the window side of the solo seats which are thankfully smaller than those on the Meridian, though there were instances during the journey where these stopped working for numerous moments at a time, as shown by the blue light being off… Legroom at the table seats isn’t too bad if you don’t have anyone sitting opposite you like me, but there is a problem with the solo seats where the table pole can get in the way of this, which does spoil this sadly… 9:00 On that note as well, there is a lever at the base to operate the seat’s manual recline but this was rather stiff to operate and didn’t go massively far as you can see! The window sides have retractable coat hooks which I do like on the Hitachi trains in general and finally there’s a drawdown window blind which blocks out the view if the sun is too harsh, or just want some sleep! On the whole I do like the interior but some aspects of it could have been designed better to enhance passenger comfort as I’m sure you’ll agree – the features are an improvement on the Meridian though for sure! 9:36 Diesel Mode on the Midland Main Line Speaking of which the 810s also have fast and free WiFi on board which is easy to connect to, and thankfully the reception is a significant improvement to the 222s which was always awful! I also love these passenger information screens which are well integrated with the units and show information such as seat occupancy levels, onward connections and a route map though the latter wasn’t working for some reason! This is shown as we arrive into Derby, 10:01 an interchange between the Midland Main Line and the Cross Country Route to Birmingham and the South West. Derby will also be the future HQ of Great British Railways, which is fitting given the city has been the UK’s longest-standing rail manufacturing site since the 1840s with Alstom’s Litchurch Lane works just nearby. Also just past the station is Derby Etches Park, which is EMR’s main maintenance facility for its regional and intercity fleets; the depot was recently taken over by Hitachi as part of the Aurora project and some overhead AC electric masts are installed here to help with the maintenance of the Aurora fleet. As I mentioned previously, this is one of the “slower” services between Sheffield and London, meaning we call additionally at Long Eaton, where due to platform lengths only the front 4 coaches open their doors as was the case with the Meridians. 11:07 Due to a signal fault on the MML, we move to the slow also call at East Midlands Parkway shortly afterwards, the now decommissioned Ratcliffe Power Station looming above. This station acts as a transit point between the Midland Main Line and East Midlands Airport in Nottinghamshire, though this is only by way of road transport. We then move back on the fast lines and Loughborough is then called at, home of Loughborough University and also Brush Traction, the latter closing at the end of 2021 due to owner Wabtec shifting production to its other UK locations. This section of the Midland Main Line allows for faster speeds of up to 120mph, and I have to say the ride quality is very good excluding the noise from the engines – I never thought I’d be saying this about a UK Hitachi train! 11:58 Leicester & Power Switch As we approach our final intermediate stop, Leicester, we pass Leicester LIP just to the 12:03 left, and from an enthusiast’s perspective there’s always something interesting here such as the former GWR Class 769s being prepared for future freight work use. Like Derby, Leicester is also another key Midlands interchange station, though you can also change here for services to the East of England including Stansted Airport. Only the Sheffield services like ours run non-stop to London from here – the Nottingham ones calling at additional stops on the newly-electrified section of the MML we’re about the join. This section begins at Wigston South Junction shortly after departure from Leicester, with electrification going live earlier this year before the government unfortunately “paused” the remainder of the Midland Main Line electrification project; this would have seen the Auroras run their full routes to Sheffield and Nottingham on full electric power, but instead their bi-mode capabilities have to be used. Here is where the Aurora switches from diesel to electric mode for the remaining duration to London and also where their performance is A LOT better… 13:13 Market Harborough was originally meant to be the Northern limit of the revised Midland Main Line electrification scheme, which has been completely rebuilt and redesigned to accommodate the new overhead wires. It certainly looks more modern than it used to! 13:26 Walkthrough Before we look around the Aurora, here are the occupancy levels per the system… …vs reality – it’s busy today! Standard class also uses the FISA Lean design with better winged headrests, albeit using slightly narrower seats in a 2+2 configuration with mainly airline seats and a small handful of table seats, which is a problem for groups and families. Also unlike other AT300 variants these strangely don’t have drawdown window blinds, which is a bit of a shame… does anyone know why? Regardless, I think the seats do the job; they could be a bit more padded, but as far as new UK trains go they’re perfectly acceptable, 14:02 especially compared to their older counterparts! Legroom has been a huge criticism of standard, but I found it ok and I’m around 5ft 8 so it may be an issue if you’re on the taller side! Luggage storage is available using the overhead racks for smaller items, as well as there being plenty of larger racks throughout the carriages and in between seat gaps; this was something I always thought was poor on the Meridians both in terms of space and quantity, so it’s good to see the Auroras resolving this! Bike storage for two bikes is in Coach B, and whilst it is free on EMR like other UK railways you should make reservations online or by phone as these are often pretty popular! The Auroras have a total of 4 toilets on board – two of these are accessible which have been the main cause for faults during their introduction, thankfully both were working on this trip and immaculately clean. There’s even an assist mode button so the door opens halfway for a companion if needed, but I am confused about why standard has another accessible toilet when the only wheelchair space is in first? 15:03 The remaining standard toilets are much more spacious than they look in line with other Hitachi units, though I later came back to find this one was out of order… was it something I did? Electric Mode on the Midland Main Line 15:15 The section we’re on now is where the Corby branch joins with the main Midland Main Line, just north of Kettering station. In the background is Kettering Stabling Sidings for stabling of the Class 360s which run the EMR Connect or “Luton Airport Express” service – stay tuned for a video soon! The section between Corby and Bedford was electrified in 2020 as part of the initial scheme which was largely cancelled at the time – this allowed electric services to run north of Bedford which we’re passing now, which was electrified back in the 80s primarily for Thameslink services. Consequently, speeds were previously capped at 100mph for electric trains due to the overhead wires, however recent upgrades allow electric trains to exceed the 100mph limit imposed by the overhead lines, allowing for 125mph running the 16:02 legacy diesel trains have been doing since 2013! I was impressed with the ride quality on diesel running but I have to say it’s even better on electric – the Aurora runs very smooth, even at full speed! We’re now on the final stretch to St Pancras 16:32 Journey Summary, Conclusions & Pricing and the end of our journey today – overall, I was really impressed with these trains. There are some great design features incorporated that gives Midland Main Line users a huge upgrade over the older 222s, though there are others that let the side down, such as the legroom in first class, being built as 5 coach units and numerous technical faults during the journey, but the latter is to be expected considering this is the Aurora’s first few days in passenger service. My ticket for this trip was a super off-peak return for £67.25 including my Railcard discount 17:04 and I paid an additional £19 for my first class Seatfrog upgrade, so £86.25 in total; in all honesty this is WAY too expensive for a 2 hour train ride though sadly this is the reality of many trains in the UK these days, but if I have to put a positive spin on this at least rail fares Arrival into London & Outro - Thanks for Watching! 17:21 here are being frozen until at least 2027! Anyway, we arrive into our final stop of London St Pancras International with an 8 minute delay at 16:17. Now you’ve heard from me, I want to hear from you – what did you think of the brand new EMR Class 810 “Aurora”? Have you travelled on it yet or has this video inspired you to give it a go? Let me know in the comments! I hope you’ve enjoyed this video – please like and share it if you did to aid the channel’s growth and don’t forget to subscribe to 18:00 the channel and turn on notifications for more content such as this weekly! Ok now I’m off to continue my day before I go away and edit this video later – thanks so much for coming with me on this trip and I look forward to bringing you with me on my next one!

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