British Rail Class 800

The British Rail Class 800 is a bi-mode multiple unit built by Hitachi Rail for Great Western Railway, which brands it the Intercity Express Train, and for London North Eastern Railway, which brands it Azuma. It takes power through electric motors from overhead wires but also carries diesel generators so that it can run on unelectrified track, and it belongs to the Hitachi AT300 product family. It was developed with the electric-only Class 801 under the Intercity Express Programme to replace the InterCity 125 and InterCity 225 fleets, and was built between 2014 and 2018, assembled at Newton Aycliffe from bodyshells shipped from Kasado Works in Japan. It entered service on the Great Western Main Line on 16 October 2017 and on the East Coast Main Line on 15 May 2019, and early operations were troubled by fatigue cracking and corrosion on the aluminium body shells, particularly around the yaw dampers.