Are there any plans to replace the Southern Class 455s?

[Cricketer8for9]

They’ve been around for a long time and are among the oldest units on National Rail services. I’ve not heard of plans to replace them; have I missed something?

 

[swt_passenger]

No you haven’t missed anything. For the last few years there’s been regular speculation, but never any facts.

 

[D365]

Here is the most recent example.

 

[Cricketer8for9]

Thanks. I did a search, but I did not find the quoted thread. So keep waiting is the answer.

 

[MatthewRead]

What about the 379's moving to Great Northern displacing the 387's that could certainly see off the 455's and possibly the 313's which are even older and in a worse state!

 

[Sm5]

From what I hear, they are pretty low cost to run and are quite reliable.
Given the cash strapped economy, and lack of a political reason to trash them, I could imagine them being around a while.

Apart from being old, whats wrong with them ?

 

[HST43257]

Does old really matter if they function well? (Do they function well?!)

 

[Sm5]

As we are in speculation, is there any logic in swapping 313’s for SWT 455’s when they finish.

I do like 455’s, pretty solid machines, and overall are in good condition and a satisfactory passenger appearance.

A bit of belt tightening might slow down some of this waste weve seen in ditching perfectly usable stock the last few years.

 

[JonathanH]

As we are in speculation, is there any logic in swapping 313’s for SWT 455’s when they finish.

Such a proposal is complicated by different lease companies being involved and the cost of making that switch in terms of training for both traincrew and maintenance staff.

 

[Sm5]

Such a proposal is complicated by different lease companies being involved and the cost of making that switch in terms of training for both traincrew and maintenance staff.

Can you elaborate on that part ?
A 455 is part of the scenery for Southern, why would it introduce an overhead just because its an ex-SWT 455 vs one of their own ?

 

[JonathanH]

Can you elaborate on that part ?
A 455 is part of the scenery for Southern, why would it introduce an overhead just because its an ex-SWT 455 vs one of their own ?

455s are based at Stewarts Lane and Selhurst and work in South London. 313s are based at Lovers Walk and work around Brighton. The people involved in 313s would appear not to 'know' 455s.

You could put SWR 455s in the Southern Metro area and displace 377s to the coast but the 377s generally work in 10 car formations on Metro work so that switch doesn't work easily either.

SWR 455s are owned by Porterbrook, the 313s by Beacon Rail and Southern's 455s by Eversholt.

SWR's 455s also have a different traction package now.

 

[Minstral25]

SWR's 455s also have a different traction package now.

The main issue is they are no longer compatible - SWR's are very different to Southern's so its swapping one out of date unit (313) for another (455) plus the associated costs of retraining drivers, guards and mechanical staff, then plus 313's are 3 car & 455's are 4-car so possible infrastructure works too. Not really an easy fit, nice though it would be.