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

[Bigfoot]

Station improvements are taking place still AFAIK so a wait and see basis how that battle plays out.

It's not just station improvements. The camera clarity is just awful. Blurry areas, "self cleaning glass" that clearly doesn't clean itself and many more. The internal CCTV display clarity that the driver can see is so much better than the arguably more important PTI images.

 

[PG]

"self cleaning glass" that clearly doesn't clean itself

I [don't] see what you did there

 

[norbitonflyer]

Next week's new diagram:

5G03 0534 Wimbledon Park Depot to Wimbledon
..............
5Y67 2351 Woking to Wimbledon Park Depot

Shouldn't they be trying to cover the existing diagrams befiore introducing any more?

 

[DMckduck]

It's not just station improvements. The camera clarity is just awful. Blurry areas, "self cleaning glass" that clearly doesn't clean itself and many more. The internal CCTV display clarity that the driver can see is so much better than the arguably more important PTI images.

Are they the same cameras and in cab monitors as other aventra stock?

 

[Class15]

Shouldn't they be trying to cover the existing diagrams befiore introducing any more?

Same thought here

 

[WWTownEnth]

Next week's new diagram:

5G03 0534 Wimbledon Park Depot to Wimbledon
2G03 0549 Wimbledon to Guildford
2G14 0704 Guildford to London Waterloo
2M13 0817 London Waterloo to Chessington South
2M20 0904 Chessington South to London Waterloo
2F19 0950 London Waterloo to Woking
2F28 1103 Woking to London Waterloo
2G29 1203 London Waterloo to Guildford
2G40 1334 Guildford to London Waterloo
2M39 1447 London Waterloo to Chessington South
2M46 1534 Chessington South to London Waterloo
2F45 1620 London Waterloo to Woking
2F54 1733 Woking to London Waterloo
2G55 1833 London Waterloo to Guildford
2G66 2004 Guildford to London Waterloo
2M65 2117 London Waterloo to Chessington South
2M72 2204 Chessington South to London Waterloo
2F71 2250 London Waterloo to Woking
5Y67 2351 Woking to Wimbledon Park Depot

Thanks. Good news That we will have had two consecutive weeks with additional diagrams added.

 

[Goldfish62]

Same thought here

Hopefully it means that more new units will be made available for passenger service before next week, otherwise SWR are going to have to dig into their diminishing pool of spare 455s!

 

[Nimbus020]

Hopefully it means that more new units will be made available for passenger service before next week, otherwise SWR are going to have to dig into their diminishing pool of spare 455s!

To be fair, there may have been some short term non-availability of certain units this week? (e.g. 701 031 that failed at Earlsfield last Thursday)

 

[norbitonflyer]

To be fair, there may have been some short term non-availability of certain units this week? (e.g. 701 031 that failed at Earlsfield last Thursday)

There are now 23 diagrams listed, and a 24th is due to start next week, but only 24 units are in passenger service, so to work all the diagrams requires 100% availability of the units already in service .

(not counting the diagram starting 2U09, which we were told was going to be 701-operated from May but has not happened yet, and not counting unit 701028 which spent only three days in passenger service, back in February 2024)

 

[Nimbus020]

There are now 23 diagrams listed, and a 24th is due to start next week, but only 24 units are in passenger service, so to work all the diagrams requires 100% availability of the units already in service .

(not counting the diagram starting 2U09, which we were told was going to be 701-operated from May but has not happened yet, and not counting unit 701028 which spent only three days in passenger service, back in February 2024)

Thanks - looks like 455s 709 + 729 are doing '701 stand-in duty' this week? - they replaced the diagrammed 701 on 2M05 onwards this morning

 

[Siemens Staines]

Thanks - looks like 455s 709 + 729 are doing '701 stand-in duty' this week? - they replaced the diagrammed 701 on 2M05 onwards this morning

And 5716 + 5723 which started off on the 2H87 0615 Waterloo - Shepperton diagram before being exchanged with 701051 and its diagram (to keep the 455s off of Weybridge - Waterloo via Virginia Water).

 

[Bessie]

The 7:09 Reading to Waterloo service (booked as a 701) was cancelled today. I assume due to lack of stock.

 

[GW43125]

The 7:09 Reading to Waterloo service (booked as a 701) was cancelled today. I assume due to lack of stock.

Outbound was cancelled in service at Bracknell due to "operational incident" so make of that what you will.

 

[Goldfish62]

Outbound was cancelled in service at Bracknell due to "operational incident" so make of that what you will.

RTT showed the outward working terminating at Bracknell "due to an issue with the train crew" then the inward working cancelled due to "unknown reason". Guard taken ill at Bracknell perhaps?

 

[Bigfoot]

RTT showed the outward working terminating at Bracknell "due to an issue with the train crew" then the inward working cancelled due to "unknown reason". Guard taken ill at Bracknell perhaps?

Operational incident at Bracknell, empties to Reading to wait permission to continue. Then ran empties to Waterloo.

 

[NSEWonderer]

Looks like there is 300+ drivers now trained on the 701s according to the above.

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Yes the drivers dont press it currently, and I can bet every dollar themselves and aslef will put up as much trouble as possible to avoid having to press it in the future.

Station improvements are taking place still AFAIK so a wait and see basis how that battle plays out.

Several things other than drivers and station improvements would need to be looked at including weening off Guards properly. The Cameras themselves will need reworking to be deemed suitable an majority of the conditions thrown at them.

 

[Pippy1505]

Todays move from Long Marston will be 47727 + 701048

 

[mansonlo49]

Todays move from Long Marston will be 47727 + 701048

loco will be heading back to Wembley tonight, so assume there's another 701 drag afterwards

 

[Peter Sarf]

loco will be heading back to Wembley tonight, so assume there's another 701 drag afterwards

Could be any job anywhere surely ?.

 

[mansonlo49]

Could be any job anywhere surely ?.

I was just assuming, based on previous experience

 

[Peter Sarf]

I was just assuming, based on previous experience

It has been various GBRf 69s until recently.

 

[wickham]

Could be any job anywhere surely ?.

There is a 5Q57 Northampton to Derby Lit Lane shown on RTT for 18/10 with a class 350 - might 47727 be the intended power for that ?

 

[mansonlo49]

there’s a 5Q55 this morning, testing down to Effingham Junction then return to Wimbledon, assume is a newly delivered 701?

 

[WWTownEnth]

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== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 16 Oct 2025 ==


Several things other than drivers and station improvements would need to be looked at including weening off Guards properly. The Cameras themselves will need reworking to be deemed suitable a majority of the conditions thrown at them.

What proportion of the total is 300?

 

[Stephen42]

On the subject of storage issues vs roll out :-

These deliveries from Long Marston are all of units that have been to SWR already I think. They certainly have not been stored for as long as other 701s were. So I suspect these 701s could be in good shape if they were got fully ready (un-stored and teethed) on SWR and only stored for ten or less months. So the optimist in me expects a surge of new entrants once a whole service block has enough trained drivers to cover a whole intertwined service group.

Many of the 701s have taken a while from arrival to Wimbledon to out in passenger service. 701009 has just been allocated to passenger workings today, just under a month from arrival. Significantly quicker though than the other recent ones which have been more like 3 months. The most recent arrival 701050 got evicted to Farnham yesterday before the new 701 turned up. Activity on the training/testing circuits seems to have gone up a notch over recent weeks at least.

there’s a 5Q55 this morning, testing down to Effingham Junction then return to Wimbledon, assume is a newly delivered 701?

It seems unlikely. The 5Q55 path has been inserted as a VSTP several times over the past couple of weeks and isn't a particularly long run to put a unit through its paces.

The lower 5Q headcodes are normally used for testing or driver training as are longer runs. At a guess it might be crew training. Guildford crew don't sign the Windsor side so this might be a way to allow them some out of service running on a route they do sign.

What proportion of the total is 300?

A little under half, the full article is here for anyone interested. It's dated 16th October so last week refers to 6th-10th Oct.

The Arterio programme reached another milestone last week as the 300th Driver completed their training. This means that nearly half of our Drivers that are due to be trained have now achieved Arterio competency. We also welcomed the 22nd Arterio into passenger service on Monday.

From the FOI a while back the establishment for all driver depots that will sign 701s is 679 (actual driver count may vary). Most routes have some non-701 and non-455 booked work which should allow 455 retirement without all drivers being trained. For 455 retirement Farnham drivers might not need training at all bringing it down to 604. Possibly some links at larger depots could also be excluded with careful diagramming.

Either way it does seem an odd milestone to celebrate 8 weeks out from the timetable change.

 

[WombleGuard]

What proportion of the total is 300?

Half of the 600 that need to be 701 trained.

 

[Meglos]

Many of the 701s have taken a while from arrival to Wimbledon to out in passenger service. 701009 has just been allocated to passenger workings today, just under a month from arrival. Significantly quicker though than the other recent ones which have been more like 3 months. The most recent arrival 701050 got evicted to Farnham yesterday before the new 701 turned up. Activity on the training/testing circuits seems to have gone up a notch over recent weeks at least

701009 has been allocated to 2O53 this evening. That's the 18:00 Waterloo to Waterloo via Kingston. Starts on the Windsor side.

 

[mansonlo49]

It seems unlikely. The 5Q55 path has been inserted as a VSTP several times over the past couple of weeks and isn't a particularly long run to put a unit through its paces.

The lower 5Q headcodes are normally used for testing or driver training as are longer runs. At a guess it might be crew training. Guildford crew don't sign the Windsor side so this might be a way to allow them some out of service running on a route they do sign.

So just wondering what this unit could it be

 

[NSEWonderer]

701009 has been allocated to 2O53 this evening. That's the 18:00 Waterloo to Waterloo via Kingston. Starts on the Windsor side.

Yep if its so it will leave Wimbledon Park at 17:12 as 5O53

 

[Driver@swt]

So just wondering what this unit could it be

It was a test run for 009 pre-service to close something out.