#3900
UTA 70 Class
🇬🇧 United Kingdom ·built by UTA York Road· from 1966· diesel train built for Northern Ireland
what is it?
The UTA 70 Class was a class of diesel multiple units built by the Ulster Transport Authority at its York Road works in Belfast, Northern Ireland, between 1966 and 1968 for inter-city passenger services on the provincial rail network. The MED’s and MPD’s, which made use of readily available power and transmission units, were cheap to operate but noisier and not as comfortable as locomotive-hauled rolling stock, a fact which made them unsuitable for Inter-City journeys. The decision was made to develop a new generation of multiple unit and in July 1966 the first of the new DEMU sets entered service.
who runs it
base stats
Bars compare against all trains: 600 km/h (maglev), 1,700 seats; power, weight and number built on a log scale up to 20 MW, 1,000 t and 20,000 built.
fun facts
- First built 60 years ago, in 1966.
- 410 kW is about 5 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- Weighs about as much as 41 African elephants (~6 t each).
- 116 m long: about 26 cars parked nose to tail.
- Seats 248: 5 full city buses (~50 seats each).
- Served for 20 years (1966–1986).
multiple unit: A self-propelled train: motors are spread under the passenger cars, so no separate locomotive.
spec sheet
- built
- 1966
- in service from
- 1966
- retired
- 1986
- status
- retired
- number built
- 8
- kind
- multiple unit
- traction
- diesel
- origin
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- builders
- UTA York Road
- operators
- Ulster Transport Authority, NI Railways
- top speed
- 113 km/h
- power
- 410 kW
- gauge
- 1,600 mm Irish broad gauge
- formation
- 3 cars per set
- length
- 116 m
- weight
- 245 t
- capacity
- 248 passengers
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q7875972, Wikipedia: UTA 70 Class (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.