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

Bigfoot

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Apparently the first 701 Mp701D statistics have been made available and Reliability Period 6 says it's at 3,487
This needs some context with other Aventra variants and also other SWR rolling stock to show how good or bad they are.
 
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norbitonflyer

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This needs some context with other Aventra variants and also other SWR rolling stock to show how good or bad they are.
Roger Ford reported that in Control Period 4 Class 805 was the third worst (out of fifteen) with exactly the same figure, 3487. The other three at the bottom of the table were Class 230 (905), class 777 (971), and class 195/1 (5,923)

The three worst moving annual average figures were Class 231 (3,708), class 230 (1,226) and class 777 (686). . The best was class 720 at 13,348.

Other Aventra variants
Class 720 (GA) 13348
Class 710/1 - - 12198
Class 710/2 - - - 9212
Class 345 - - - - 9014
Class 720/6 (C2C) 6908
Class 730 - - - - 5925
 

Goldfish62

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Apparently the first 701 Mp701D statistics have been made available and Reliability Period 6 says it's at 3,487
That's not at all bad. From memory it's somewhat better the full length 345s were at when Elizabeth line through working first started, and is way better than the 777 currently (moving annual average an appalling 686 miles per Mp701D).
 
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and is way better than the 777 currently (moving annual average an appalling 686 miles per Mp701D).
Mind you as someone pointed out on twitter recently the 777 is a lot more technically advanced/new than the 701 so one could argue that's expected with a family of train never seen in the UK before
 

Goldfish62

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Mind you as someone pointed out on twitter recently the 777 is a lot more technically advanced/new than the 701 so one could argue that's expected with a family of train never seen in the UK before
Don't accept that. The reliability of the 777 at this stage is very poor however you look at it. The equally radical 745 and 755 performed much better from the off.

I'm sure there'll be those on this thread who try to argue that the data shows that the 701 is the most unreliable train ever, but so far, albeit it being early days, that's not the case: it's very much middle-of-the-road.
 

NSEWonderer

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There is no defending how poor the 777s have been. If I remember correctly, around 26th July 2018 the 345s in 7 car form were around 3266 MTIN which was just about a year into their introduction. 701s most likely by a year's running will pass that. I don't believe the 345s have got past the 10k mark yet but I may be wrong.
 

Goldfish62

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There is no defending how poor the 777s have been. If I remember correctly, around 26th July 2018 the 345s in 7 car form were around 3266 MTIN which was just about a year into their introduction. 701s most likely by a year's running will pass that. I don't believe the 345s have got past the 10k mark yet but I may be wrong.
Currently on 9014.
 

WWTownEnth

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First time I’ve seen two on the “main“ side of London Waterloo togther this evening. In the rush hour mayhem of the signal failure, I almost didn’t notice…..


IMG_0434.jpeg.
 
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SWT_USER

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I wish SWR would stop announcing that a 701 service is an 'arterio'. SWR have failed to recover from a points failure at Wimbledon this morning causing misery for thousands all day

I'm pretty sure the travelling public don't care whether their cancelled train is an "Arterio" or not. Cut the crap from the announcements...
 

Bigfoot

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I wish SWR would stop announcing that a 701 service is an 'arterio'. SWR have failed to recover from a points failure at Wimbledon this morning causing misery for thousands all day

I'm pretty sure the travelling public don't care whether their cancelled train is an "Arterio" or not. Cut the crap from the announcements...
I agree the Arterio name is pointless, it will be horrible endless announcements once all in service.

However the points were only fixed around 1800. Hard to recover from something that wasn't just the morning and infact most of the day.
 

Class450/4DES

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I wish SWR would stop announcing that a 701 service is an 'arterio'. SWR have failed to recover from a points failure at Wimbledon this morning causing misery for thousands all day

I'm pretty sure the travelling public don't care whether their cancelled train is an "Arterio" or not. Cut the crap from the announcements...
I agree. I feel like it does not make sense. SE don't do it with the City Beams. Arterio is just a horrid name too.
 

swr444

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I wish SWR would stop announcing that a 701 service is an 'arterio'. SWR have failed to recover from a points failure at Wimbledon this morning causing misery for thousands all day

I'm pretty sure the travelling public don't care whether their cancelled train is an "Arterio" or not. Cut the crap from the announcements...
For once I wouldn’t blame SWR for this, a mess up by network rail during engineering works overnight caused the signalling system to not be able to identify whether the points were working or not meant that trains had to be talked past a signal on the up slow and down fast in the Earlsfield area. This wasn’t rectified for a good part of 14 hours or so, by then there’s no hope of service recovery. Not helped by further points failures in the Staines area. The infrastructure really is going down the drain.
 

DelW

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For once I wouldn’t blame SWR for this, a mess up by network rail during engineering works overnight caused the signalling system to not be able to identify whether the points were working or not meant that trains had to be talked past a signal on the up slow and down fast in the Earlsfield area. This wasn’t rectified for a good part of 14 hours or so, by then there’s no hope of service recovery. Not helped by further points failures in the Staines area. The infrastructure really is going down the drain.
There were also delays and cancellations on the Direct in the morning, which SWR blamed on signalling problems in the Milford area. Most trains seemed to be picking up around 15 minutes delay between Guildford and Haslemere in each direction.
 

lxfe_mxtterz

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A message has just come through on my work phone; apparently 2D40 13:42 Guildford to London Waterloo is a 701 today. I can only assume this must be a mistake(?) as I didn't think they had signed off 701s on this route yet, and 2D40 is a Guildford duty so the guard wouldn't be able to work it anyhow.
 

norbitonflyer

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A message has just come through on my work phone; apparently 2D40 13:42 Guildford to London Waterloo is a 701 today. I can only assume this must be a mistake(?) as I didn't think they had signed off 701s on this route yet, and 2D40 is a Guildford duty so the guard wouldn't be able to work it anyhow.
Shown on RTT as a pair of 450s.

701043 ran the first working of the Shepperton diagram this morning (2H90) 30 minutes late, but was then switched to cover the all-day Windsor diagram (2U09)
 

mansonlo49

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Wrong time of year - the 701s will surely be much more popular once it starts getting hot.
remembered 2022 summer heat wave,was on anglia 720,ac worked really well

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==

Whereabouts of 701007 ? This unit has been "off the radar" for a long time. One cab car was reportedly seen heading south on the M1 on a trailer on 06.03.24 but the destination was unknown. Another site has recently reported that TOPS shows the unit as being at Ilford, but is it ? If correct, is the whole unit there or just one car - moving one of these units by road is a BIG job - 10 lorry loads !! Has anyone actually seen 701007 recently?
I’ve seen it today at Bedford, Derby LL towards Eastleigh
 
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swtrains

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NSEWonderer

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701034 had been at Waterloo around 5pm when I was there, i assume it was doing some testing with the doors before heading back to the depot as it had the door testing signs on the inside.Screenshot_20241114_192212_Gallery.jpg
 

NSEWonderer

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Any idea what that entails?

Seems strange to call it a formal launch when they've been running in service for nearly a year now!
They've been more so on a soft launch which is more of a loaded trial than a proper service launch.
 

Goldfish62

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Any idea what that entails?

Seems strange to call it a formal launch when they've been running in service for nearly a year now!
No idea I'm afraid. I shall make some discreet enquiries. I'm assuming it'll be at Waterloo.

I can only assume the launch means there's about to be a step change in the number of trains in service. Otherwise, as you say, I can't see much point given they've been in service for quite some time now.
 

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