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

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wickham

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norbitonflyer

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Goldfish62 said:
Based on observations at Richmond and Staines, SWR appear to have dropped "Arterio" from announcements and screens. Makes sense now almost every train is a 701.
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No mention of South West Rail or Arterio on announcements at Kingston. Athough the screen at Kingston and on the train (044) still says SWR the announcement did not.
 
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Invincible

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3141 said:
And even more sense since "Arterio" is a silly and meaningless name.
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Back in 2020 guess it made sense to Mark Hopwood thinking about a heart.
rock-group.co.uk

Rock Rail South Western’s new Arterio fleet will transform travel - Rock Group

South Western Railway today unveiled Arterio as the name for Rock Rail South Western’s new £1 billion train fleet set to transform travel across South West London, Surrey and Berkshire
rock-group.co.uk rock-group.co.uk
Mark Hopwood, South Western Railway’s Managing Director, said:
“The name Arterio reflects how important this fleet will be in carrying people in and out of the heart of the capital.
 
43096

43096

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Invincible said:
Back in 2020 guess it made sense to Mark Hopwood thinking about a heart.
rock-group.co.uk

Rock Rail South Western’s new Arterio fleet will transform travel - Rock Group

South Western Railway today unveiled Arterio as the name for Rock Rail South Western’s new £1 billion train fleet set to transform travel across South West London, Surrey and Berkshire
rock-group.co.uk rock-group.co.uk
Mark Hopwood, South Western Railway’s Managing Director, said:
“The name Arterio reflects how important this fleet will be in carrying people in and out of the heart of the capital.
Click to expand...
It never made sense. It’s a bog standard suburban unit. Nothing special.
 
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WWTownEnth

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40029 Saxonia said:
There are some 701/5s at Derby as well as 701003
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There are 8 at Derby IIRC.

I wonder why SWR right now would want to add to the 13 they already have on their network and which are not yet in service, when their priority remains getting all the 10 cars in service.

I assume a 5 car could play the role of software Guinea pig just as well.

But who really knows!
 
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WWTownEnth said:
There are 8 at Derby IIRC.

I wonder why SWR right now would want to add to the 13 they already have on their network and which are not yet in service, when their priority remains getting all the 10 cars in service.

I assume a 5 car could play the role of software Guinea pig just as well.

But who really knows!
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Would hope that whilst they are at Derby, any fixes, rectification and software was done, so almost ready to enter service.

If not, why did they get taken from storage to Derby, rather than staying in store longer, or going direct to Wimbledon.

My gut feeling is now reached stage where they need to have some pairs of 5cars working properly and in training fleet, so they are confident there won't be big pause (many weeks) after 10car, before can starting introducing 5car into service.

By early-mid July will be running out of 10car units to commission, (and possibly unit 003 will be held back months) so need to start overlapping the introduction of 5cars too
 
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adc82140

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I asked the question a few pages back about whether the /0s alone would be enough to see off the 458/4s, and was given an unequivocal yes. Therefore the /5s would only be for service enhancements and to remove the 450s from their remaining suburban diagrams. I suspect that there is no immediate hurry at SWR to do this.
 
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Goldfish62

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adc82140 said:
I asked the question a few pages back about whether the /0s alone would be enough to see off the 458/4s, and was given an unequivocal yes. Therefore the /5s would only be for service enhancements and to remove the 450s from their remaining suburban diagrams. I suspect that there is no immediate hurry at SWR to do this.
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Things may have changed in the last couple of weeks, but when doing the media rounds recently Lawrence Bowman consistently stated that the /5s would start entering service later in the summer with all in service ideally by the end of the year, or at the latest by early next year.

SWR are clearly and understandably keen that all suburban services move over ASAP to get the performance benefit from the units. They wouldn't get that benefit by persisting with unsuitable 450s.
 
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norbitonflyer

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WWTownEnth said:
There are 8 at Derby IIRC.

I wonder why SWR right now would want to add to the 13 they already have on their network and which are not yet in service, when their priority remains getting all the 10 cars in service.

I assume a 5 car could play the role of software Guinea pig just as well.

But who really knows!
Click to expand...
The software in a /5 will be different. For one thing, they have to cope with the two separate states of being coupled, or not coupled, to another unit.
 
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class701

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After the /5s start entering service in pairs, which routes might see single 5-car operation going forward? They must have had a plan to order 30 of them. We could definately use an extra boost to capacity on the Epsom-wcp-Waterloo line, back to 2019 levels at the very least. It is criminal how negleted this line is, given the serious road traffic problems in the area. The Elizabeth line success should have taught DfT that if you run trains, people will flock to use them. Get on with Crossrail 2 planning too.
 
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Snow1964

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class701 said:
After the /5s start entering service in pairs, which routes might see single 5-car operation going forward? They must have had a plan to order 30 of them. We could definately use an extra boost to capacity on the Epsom-wcp-Waterloo line, back to 2019 levels at the very least. It is criminal how negleted this line is, given the serious road traffic problems in the area. The Elizabeth line success should have taught DfT that if you run trains, people will flock to use them. Get on with Crossrail 2 planning too.
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I don't think there was ever a plan to use 5car on their own in regular timetable. However there are small number of locations (eg Kingston bay platform, and some little used reversing crossovers used during engineering works) where 10car trains don't fit. Some sidings also can't take 10cars

However a new timetable is going out to consultation, and maybe some shuttles in outer suburbs could switch which are currently 450 operated.

450s (and 444s) were leased in May 2025 for 5 years to May 2030, so at this stage can't rule out possibility that new proposed timetable will require fewer 450s and some will go off lease by May 2030 with some services currently 450 operated switching to 701s
 
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Big Jumby 74

Big Jumby 74

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Snow1964 said:
However a new timetable is going out to consultation
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But if the end result is a similar level of service as per pre 2019, all 701's will still be required on services previously worked by 455/456/458 & 707.

On that basis my estimates for traffic 701's (those in service every day) are 56 from 60 x 10 car, and 27 from 30 x 5 car*, the remaining being the maintenance allocation.

* A majority working in pairs perhaps (SX), but with scope to break down to 2 x 5 car for engineering work as you correctly point out.

Snow1964 said:
I don't think there was ever a plan to use 5car on their own in regular timetable.
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I think there will be a small number in the base plan, for the very reason you mention (siding capacity), so to answer class701's question, my guess is that some of the first starts of the day, and possibly some of the last services each day may be a mix of 10 and 5 car.
If this turns out to be the case, the latter (last services) will be the one's that need to be carefully planned to avoid late night overcrowding post pub and theatre chuck out times.

The devil will be in the (diagram) detail vs known passenger loadings.
 
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norbitonflyer

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class701 said:
After the /5s start entering service in pairs, which routes might see single 5-car operation going forward? They must have had a plan to order 30 of them. We could definately use an extra boost to capacity on the Epsom-wcp-Waterloo line, back to 2019 levels at the very least. It is criminal how negleted this line is, given the serious road traffic problems in the area. The Elizabeth line success should have taught DfT that if you run trains, people will flock to use them. Get on with Crossrail 2 planning too.
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Likewise the Hounslow Loop service. 2 tph is not acceptable on any route in London.

Realistically, the 701s will be life-expired (and probably so will I) long before there is any chance of any Crossrail 2 services running.
 
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adc82140

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The cynic in me is grateful that there are no 5 car 701s in service so far, it means that nothing on the suburban side can be short formed.
 
Big Jumby 74

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But on the flip side, a defect on one car (of ten) could render a day's diagram cancelled completely....be careful what you wish for!

Short formed or no train at all....
 
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