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

[Bigfoot]

14 of the five car units now on SWR territory.

I wonder when we will see the first pair enter service.....my assumption is that they wil continue to prioritise the 10 cars until they are all in traffic. Has five car driver training started yet?

No, I predict it will start in the late summer.

 

[Goldfish62]

14 of the five car units now on SWR territory.

I wonder when we will see the first pair enter service.....my assumption is that they wil continue to prioritise the 10 cars until they are all in traffic. Has five car driver training started yet?

It's been stated on a number of occasions by the MD on his recent media round that the 5 car units will enter service as pairs once all the 10-car units have entered service.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

701510 should be in 6Q57 going to Litchurch Lane this afternoon...

Cancelled at Clapham Junction... an overhanging bush damaged the pantograph on 93 001 apparently.

That'll be a Network Rail liability...

 

[norbitonflyer]

Cancelled at Clapham Junction... an overhanging bush damaged the pantograph on 93 001 apparently.

That'll be a Network Rail liability...

Can't it run on diesel?

 

[Class15]

Can't it run on diesel?

Indeed, or battery.

Maybe the loco shuts itself down if the pantograph goes pop?

 

[800001]

Can't it run on diesel?

Depends what damage it has caused to the loco

 

[TRAX]

Can't it run on diesel?

I don't expect them to want to run the locomotive after it's suffered any kind of damage, especially a brand new unit which someone will probably want to inspect anyway.

 

[Bigfoot]

Branch wedged into the pantograph making it out of guage and would damage any OLE it encounters. Berthed in Clapham yard for branch removal.

 

[fgwrich]

Branch wedged into the pantograph making it out of guage and would damage any OLE it encounters. Berthed in Clapham yard for branch removal.

Darn! I’d have swung by Clapham again this evening if I realised it is spending the night there. Presumably they’ll get around it by swapping 93005 from the rear to the front and then it’ll get a little further than Wimbledon to Clapham.

 

[WWTownEnth]

Any sign of a new diagram for next week? Could this be the week we hit the promised “50 diagrams by summer”?

 

[TEW]

Another main suburban diagram added next week which does take it up to 50 diagrams.

 

[WWTownEnth]

Another main suburban diagram added next week which does take it up to 50 diagrams.

Thanks. Good news. Does that also mean a pair of 450s cascading to the Windsor line and another 458/4 diagram being replaced?

 

[TEW]

Yes. Down to 3 458/4 pairs next week.

 

[Farnborough]

Daft question... we know that the Diagrams and CWNs are shown on the SWR website. Are the STPs published anywhere public?

 

[WarrenTManager]

Another main suburban diagram added next week which does take it up to 50 diagrams.

Hoping it’s the NT423/NT424 diagram….

 

[TEW]

Hoping it’s the NT423/NT424 diagram….

Up until 2022 at Waterloo, yes. Which is a Guildford via Epsom/ Hampton Court diagram for most the day.

 

[WWTownEnth]

So where does that leave us next week?

Across the entire suburban service network I make it:

50 701 diagrams (mix of main and Windsor)

3 458/4 diagrams (all Windsor)

10 450 diagrams (4 main and 6 Windsor)

 

[Big Jumby 74]

Daft question... we know that the Diagrams and CWNs are shown on the SWR website. Are the STPs published anywhere public?

Not a daft question, but suggest that will never happen. STP notices by their very definition are issued very frequently and often very close to the date of operation.

I have no idea who at SWR is responsible for uploading the base plan CWN and unit diagrams for each LTP issue to the publicly accessible website, albeit I was very surprised to see same in the public domain a couple of years ago.

Bottom line is that (in may dinosaur) days and very likely unchanged today, one would issue a STP notice in relation to a given SX week or weekend at the due date in advance of the week or weekend concerned, but then something else would change (outside of Planning's control) and so a further STP notice would be issued within days of the day of operation.

In other words, stations and depots might have several amendments issued to them for any one day within the following week, and it would need someone on each depot or station (or signal box, as I was) to take account of every change issued by HQ (as was) and ensure local notices were updated and distributed in time.

Fire fighting comes to mind, but that's how it was.

If every such notice was added to the SWR web page, I would wager 99.9% of those who look in to the site on a hobby/enthusiast basis, would ignore the same, as it would become too complex to understand in relation to previously issued amendments for the same date.

 

[JCO1406]

Up until 2022 at Waterloo, yes. Which is a Guildford via Epsom/ Hampton Court diagram for most the day.

Does this mean that Hampton Court will be fully 701 or is there still another diagram or 2?

 

[TEW]

Hampton Court should be fully 701 on weekdays.

 

[norbitonflyer]

Up until 2022 at Waterloo, yes. Which is a Guildford via Epsom/ Hampton Court diagram for most the day.

Which services does that run?

 

[Big Jumby 74]

Does this mean that Hampton Court will be fully 701 or is there still another diagram or 2?

Hampton Court should be fully 701 on weekdays.

TEW would appear to be on the ball, far more than I as retired old git. But suffice to say stock type at any main suburban location, be that Hampton Court or elsewhere, will be driven (as it always was) by the platforming scenario at Waterloo.

 

[Farnborough]

Not a daft question, but suggest that will never happen. STP notices by their very definition are issued very frequently and often very close to the date of operation.

I suspected as much... so thanks for the comprehensive answer

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 2 Jul 2026 ==

701027 wil enter service on 5N95/1N95.

Don't know which unit was due to run 1N95 this evening - but it's been cancelled due to lineside vegetation (JP).

This reminds me, a few years ago, when the guard came over the tannoy:
We apologise for the delay, which is due to leaves on the line {pause for the groans from the passengers}. In this instance, they are still attached to the tree.

 

[davews]

Journeycheck said it was a tree down at Barnes, caused absolute chaos and with a points/signalling failure at Staines earlier it was not a good day for the Windsor lines.

 

[Dx1998]

Journeycheck said it was a tree down at Barnes, caused absolute chaos and with a points/signalling failure at Staines earlier it was not a good day for the Windsor lines.

I think the Hounslow loop and Richmond suffered the hardest yesterday. Trains were being diverted round the Kingston loop and reversing at Twickenham.

Both platforms at RMD had to be closed, no service for at least 3 hours in either direction

 

[Bigfoot]

Darn! I’d have swung by Clapham again this evening if I realised it is spending the night there. Presumably they’ll get around it by swapping 93005 from the rear to the front and then it’ll get a little further than Wimbledon to Clapham.

It's going to be there for a while. Replacement loco was planned to coming down today to shunt broken loco and take 701/5 and the other 93 to Derby. Could be delayed.

 

[swr444]

Lots of cancellations this evening due to a shortage of serviceable 701s it seems.

 

[nctd2306]

Lots of cancellations this evening due to a shortage of serviceable 701s it seems.

One or both of 2C53 and 2C57 seem to have been short formed the majority of weekdays in the last two weeks. At least now it's usually 8 vice 10 car whereas this time last year it would have been 4-455 vice 8!

 

[Siemens Staines]

Lots of cancellations this evening due to a shortage of serviceable 701s it seems.

Excluding the heat restricted days, I think that the morning of 15th June was the last weekday that 701s covered all of their (then 48) booked diagrams. That said, we are only on the 3rd but 53 of the 54 have worked at some point in July (701034 the only absentee) which may suggest lots of little faults? This morning started with three short, one diagram 2*450, one diagram 2*458 and one diagram cancelled. There were then three in service failures during the morning peak, 701014 at Guildford, 701058 at Shepperton and 701022 at Frimley. The latter providing the now rare sight of anything other than a 450 in Ascot P3 on its transfer back to Wimbledon.

 

[norbitonflyer]

Excluding the heat restricted days, I think that the morning of 15th June was the last weekday that 701s covered all of their (then 48) booked diagrams. That said, we are only on the 3rd but 53 of the 54 have worked at some point in July (701034 the only absentee) which may suggest lots of little faults? This morning started with three short, one diagram 2*450, one diagram 2*458 and one diagram cancelled. There were then three in service failures during the morning peak, 701014 at Guildford, 701058 at Shepperton and 701022 at Frimley. The latter providing the now rare sight of anything other than a 450 in Ascot P3 on its transfer back to Wimbledon.

There have certainly been days since then when more than 48 units have been out (there were 49 on Tuesday, and 48 yesterday), but there were several diagrams with unit swaps during the day.