photograph by John Lewis

On 3 December 2001 220023 was the leading unit of the "Sussex Scot" pictured here at Kensington Olympia.

The class 220 Voyager and class 221 Super Voyager are the state-of-the-art fleet of DEMUs designed, constructed and maintained by Bombardier introduced in June 2001 to revolutionise Virgin Trains Cross Country services. They replace VT XC's entire loco hauled fleet and the majority of HSTs. This revolution to cross country services has been fought on several fronts: Working with Railtrack on infrastructure improvements to increase line speeds and the number of paths. Introducing new rolling stock in the form of Voyagers to improve reliability, run faster, introduce new features for passengers such as computerised seat reservation indicators, at seat full food service for first class, at seat audio channels, power sockets for running computers and charging mobile telephones and an on board self service shop, plus the reintroduction of long-lost railway carriage favourites such as window blinds and reading lights. Running shorter trains but at increased regular frequency and aiming towards a clockface timetable hitherto unthought of for such long distance services.
 
Voyagers are already working on services to Bournemouth/Poole, Brighton/Gatwick Airport and Portsmouth Harbour and Super Voyagers are currently being introduced, though tilt running is not yet implemented. The Brighton line was the first on the Southern to receive Voyager services on the 22nd July 2001 and the first ever Super Voyager train carrying fare paying passengers was the 20.20 Birmingham New Street to Brighton on the 12th April 2002. All loco hauled Cross Country services to and from Bournemouth/Poole had been eliminated by April 14th> 2002. Note that Voyager and Super Voyager are Virgin Trains' brands and these names cannot be used by similar Bombardier DEMU units to be introduced in the future by other TOCs.
 
The 34 strong Voyager fleet is numbered 220001 - 220034 and formed of 4 cars Driving Motor Second (DMS) - Motor Second Restaurant Buffet (MSRB) - Motor second (MS) - Driving Motor First (DMF). Seating is for 26 first class and 162 standard class passengers, each unit had three toilets and is gangwayed within the unit only.
 
The 44 strong Super Voyager fleet is numbered 221101-221144 and is the 5 car tilting version (though the final four units are 4 car formed as per class 220 and will be used on Euston - Holyhead/Blackpool services) formed DMS - MSRB - MS(A) - MS(B) - DMF. Seating in 5 car formations is for 26 first class and 224 standard class passengers with 4 toilets and again gangwayed within the unit only.

photograph by Ozz Scott

In complete contrast and making life difficult for railway enthusiasts the unit number is discreet!  Some would say the prominent coupler spoils the sleek looks of these units however the regular joining of units when travelling over the trunk parts of the cross country network is an important part of the strategy for using multiple units.

photograph by Ozz Scott

photograph by Ozz Scott