East Midlands Railway cut services as its new Hitachi fleet underdelivered

On 2026-07-17 East Midlands Railway announced it would reduce services 'until further notice' because of problems with its new Aurora (Class 810) fleet built by Hitachi Rail. The trains had entered passenger service in December 2025 after what EMR said was a three-year delay, and a number of Intercity services to and from London St Pancras — serving Leicester, Nottingham, Lincoln, Derby and Sheffield — were cancelled from the following Monday, with other services running fewer carriages.

Managing director Will Rogers said the Class 810 fleet's performance had 'fallen below the levels we and our customers expect' and called the timetable change 'necessary'. EMR explained that the fleet was meant to give a smooth transition from the Class 222 fleet, with both running side by side under Hitachi's maintenance, but the three-year delay plus ongoing reliability and maintenance issues across both fleets had wrecked its ability to run a reliable Intercity service. Booked passengers could travel on adjacent trains or claim full refunds.

The cuts capped a rough stretch: EMR had already run a reduced timetable for two weeks, citing warm weather, though rail experts told the BBC the heat was only part of it. Railfuture's Bruce Williamson called any service reduction 'a step in the wrong direction', and Harborough MP Neil O'Brien, a regular user, called it 'the latest nightmare... a total mess and it has been a mess for months'. Hitachi said more than a third of the fleet had been delivered and was investing in additional testing at Long Marston, with EMR planning a 'controlled manner' rollout through 2027.

Intercity services to London St Pancras cancelled until further notice from July 2026; other trains ran with fewer carriages

The new fleet arrived three years late, compressing the transition period the timetable depended on

Reliability and maintenance problems hit both the old and new fleets at once, leaving no dependable fallback

EMR pressed ahead with passenger service and kept the rollout committed through 2027 despite the performance shortfalls

A fleet replacement run with no schedule slack turns every teething problem into a public timetable cut

As of 2026-07-17 the reduced timetable was in place with no stated end date, refunds were offered, and Hitachi was adding testing activity at the Long Marston Rail Innovation Centre while deliveries of the remaining fleet continued.