Class 701 'Aventra' trains for South Western Railway: progress updates

[brooklynbound]

It was all published at the time, but that's going back seven years now. There were many enhancements, for example, it featured 4tph to both Reading and Windsor all day, seven days a week (Yes, even Sunday evenings).

I can't find the original 2018 timetable proposal but this is one of the consultation reports...

https://www.southwesternrailway.com/~/media/files/contact-and-help/timetable-consultations/dec-outcome/inner-suburban-routes.pdf?la=en

 

[Peter Sarf]

Not sure how reliable this is as it's word of mouth, but I have been told by a crew member that they're running two courses at a time. What I should have asked, but forgot, was whether that's staggered ( i.e. the second course starting one week after the first course so there's an overlap ) or if it's two courses running in parallel.

My GUESS is one course starting every Monday (I imagine class room during some/all of first week so that resource freed up ready for the next week). So any drivers passed so far will be last Friday (16/08) and next Friday (23/08). Assuming I am recalling correctly that this all started Monday 05/08/2024 ?. One hopes the pass rate is nigh on 100% ?.

It’s not the lease charge as such, it’s the maintenance charge to Siemens. It’s also entirely understandable: more mileage means that bogie overhauls - which are not cheap - come around more quickly.

Of course makes sense. what I recall was that the charges per mile/hour was higher per mile/hour above a certain threshold and the 450s were consistently above that threshold. That could mean that to keep availability up Siemens were having to do work on units overnight that was originally envisaged could be done during the operating day. Work overnight is going to be more costly (unsociable hours) and would also be stretching depot resources as less done in the daylight hours. My comments are based on recollection and quite a bit of guessing.

 

[Flange Squeal]

I think earlier timetables had longer turn rounds - requiring an extra train in order to accommodate the longer round trip time. Cost cutting, plus greater demand on platform occupancy at Waterloo, (and the longer time to clear the throat with 10 car trains) led to trying to run the service with four trains instead of five.

Kempton Park was only open on race days until around the time of the 455 refurbishment, so stopping everything there from that point will also have affected timetable resilience. That is admittedly going back to South West Trains days though.

 

[mansonlo49]

according TO RTT at long marston today, there's a 701 arriving from Eastleigh and one departing back to wilmbledon

 

[444045]

according TO RTT at long marston today, there's a 701 arriving from Eastleigh and one departing back to wilmbledon

69011 hauling 701057 is on 5Q85 09+30 Eastleigh Depot to Long Marston.

 

[swtrains]

701017 and 701044 on the usual Waterloo-Waterloo (on Hounslow loop) testing today.

 

[class701]

How many of the 90 trains have been successfully delivered to SWR and actually entered passenger service so far? Is it still less than 5? This has to be the UK's worst managed contract since... well HS2. This cannot just be about training. I think there must still be hardware or sw issues with the 701s themselves.

 

[Goldfish62]

How many of the 90 trains have been successfully delivered to SWR and actually entered passenger service so far? Is it still less than 5?

There's no point in having more than a handful of units available when you're only running one diagram daily.

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I think there must still be hardware or sw issues with the 701s themselves.

Training has started.

 

[Lockwood]

How many units are parked up off the juice at the moment?

 

[norbitonflyer]

How many of the 90 trains have been successfully delivered to SWR and actually entered passenger service so far? Is it still less than 5?

No. But it is fewer than six!

See post ~9,000
Totals, first and most recent outings
701043 (58) January 16th, July 24th
701037 (45) January 9th, July 23rd
701039 (35) January 10th, August 16th
701036 (13) March 7th, August 22nd
701028 (3) February 6th, February 9th

 

[mansonlo49]

69011 hauling 701057 is on 5Q85 09+30 Eastleigh Depot to Long Marston.

Thanks how about the one returning to Wimbledon ?

 

[Brian Bennett]

Thanks how about the one returning to Wimbledon ?

Reported as 701048.

 

[mansonlo49]

Reported as 701048.

ok thank you

 

[Chriso]

How many of the 90 trains have been successfully delivered to SWR and actually entered passenger service so far? Is it still less than 5? This has to be the UK's worst managed contract since... well HS2. This cannot just be about training. I think there must still be hardware or sw issues with the 701s themselves.

And the Central Line refurbishment project

 

[swtrains]

3 sets (701017, 701044 and 701046) on the Waterloo-Waterloo (Hounslow loop) testing today.

 

[deepeetw]

3 sets (701017, 701044 and 701046) on the Waterloo-Waterloo (Hounslow loop) testing today.

Some of this testing could be practical handling associated with the training course? Or is that all in the sim?

 

[3973EXL]

1200/23 - 5Q21/31/42 701044/037/046
Q31 shown as 017 on RTT

Clapham J Yard 701017/031/042/529

 

[Casper Pesky]

What chance this topic getting to page 701?

 

[OneTrackMinded]

What chance this topic getting to page 701?

Well, we've got at the least another 2 years until the rollout is complete...

 

[800001]

What chance this topic getting to page 701?

333 pages in 7 years so far

 

[andrewslack]

333 pages in 7 years so far

So pretty likely to happen before they're all in service then!

 

[NSEWonderer]

Looks like there was a brief ABDO test simulation by SWR and Alstom of recent. There is a video also on the LinkedIn Post showing the sim running, doesn't show much of the DMI but ive linked it to this post below. I've just omitted the Account name incase of breaching possible rules.

ABDO (Assisted Braking Door Opening)

SWR supporting Alstom by hosting their contracted drivers. Pre Alstom's network testing of ABDO, using new software on simulator to provide some ABDO simulated experience.

Special thanks to SWR OSTC team for hosting the session and giving up their Bank Holiday Saturday.
Thankyou to SYDAC for their technical support.
Thank you to the drivers who attended for questions, insight and your energy and passion,
We look forward to working with you all on forth coming Alstom Network testing

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View attachment 1724601598902 (2).mp4

 

[OneTrackMinded]

Looks like there was a brief ABDO test simulation by SWR and Alstom of recent. There is a video also on the LinkedIn Post showing the sim running, doesn't show much of the DMI but ive linked it to this post below. I've just omitted the Account name incase of breaching possible rules.

View attachment 164348

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 26 Aug 2024 ==

View attachment 164349

Very interesting, thanks for sharing. Still not confident it'll ever be used operationally though.

 

[NSEWonderer]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing. Still not confident it'll ever be used operationally though.

Not anytime soon sure, but I doubt they'd be preparing for naught!

 

[OneTrackMinded]

I doubt they'd be preparing for naught!

Remember what industry we are dealing with here

 

[DMckduck]

No 701 unit out again on a bank holiday, what exactly is stopping this?

I know for a fact its not crew related so what could it realistically be.

 

[Socanxdis]

Looks like Barnes

 

[Kite159]

No 701 unit out again on a bank holiday, what exactly is stopping this?

I know for a fact its not crew related so what could it realistically be.

Not booked to be out on a Saturday timetable which is what SWR is running today?

 

[Wokingham]

It was all published at the time, but that's going back seven years now. There were many enhancements, for example, it featured 4tph to both Reading and Windsor all day, seven days a week (Yes, even Sunday evenings).

did it exist in printed form?

 

[NSEWonderer]

Looks like Barnes

Indeed is Barnes