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

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WWTownEnth

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Covshire1 said:
There is a 5Q30 1400 Eastleigh Trsmd to Wimbledon Park Depot Sdgs on Thursday 23/04 which should be another stored cl701/0 moving itself for commissioning....
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That’s good. Penultimate ten car out of storage. The end of the 10 car project is coming into view.
 
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Bigfoot

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I noticed the promotional poster for 500 services that are now 701 has unit 004 as the unit somewhat ironic given it's current status.
 
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weeklycommuter

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I travelled on 10 car Arterio trains (701025 and 701048) for the first time yesterday between Clapham Junction and Richmond for a trip to Kew Gardens. The last time I made this journey was a year ago when SWR was still running Class 455s. The new Arterio trains have at long last been successfully rolled out over the last twelve months. Very few were running a year ago.

The new format of one continuous carriage like the Thameslink Class 700 trains (and overground and newer underground trains) with two plus two seating and a toilet in each half of the train provides a very large amount of space for standing. These new trains can clearly carry a very large number of passengers. I am very impressed with these new trains, they provide a greatly improved travelling experience compared to the previous rolling stock.
 
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Stephen42

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Siemens Staines said:
and another tomorrow unless the two paths to Wimbledon are an either/or?

Realtime Trains | 5Q87 1416 Bicester Mod Gbrf to Wimbledon Park Depot Sdgs | 23/04/2026

Real-time train running information for 5Q87 1416 departure from Bicester Mod Gbrf to Wimbledon Park Depot Sdgs on 23/04/2026. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.
www.realtimetrains.co.uk www.realtimetrains.co.uk
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There's a pair of paths to each of Derby Litchurch Lane and Wimbledon Park, one ROG and one GBRF. The Derby path from GBRF didn't run yesterday, the ROG is running today. After hitting Litchurch Lane it goes back to Bicester tonight for the Wimbledon path tomorrow. I'd guess that ROG is offering better commercial terms and their paths will run with the GBRFs one unused.

The 5Q30 Eastleigh 701/0 delivery looks to be today not tomorrow:

Realtime Trains | Just a moment

Realtime Trains is an independent source of live realtime running information for the Great British railway network.
www.realtimetrains.co.uk www.realtimetrains.co.uk

Edit: The Eastleigh one is on the move, the ROG path to Derby has been cancelled though loco arrived. Maybe only doing the Wimbledon delivery tomorrow
 
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Peter Sarf

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Stephen42 said:
There's a pair of paths to each of Derby Litchurch Lane and Wimbledon Park, one ROG and one GBRF. The Derby path from GBRF didn't run yesterday, the ROG is running today. After hitting Litchurch Lane it goes back to Bicester tonight for the Wimbledon path tomorrow. I'd guess that ROG is offering better commercial terms and their paths will run with the GBRFs one unused.

The 5Q30 Eastleigh 701/0 delivery looks to be today not tomorrow:

Realtime Trains | Just a moment

Realtime Trains is an independent source of live realtime running information for the Great British railway network.
www.realtimetrains.co.uk www.realtimetrains.co.uk

Edit: The Eastleigh one is on the move, the ROG path to Derby has been cancelled though loco arrived. Maybe only doing the Wimbledon delivery tomorrow
Click to expand...
Any info on what Loco went to Bicester from Derby today (22/04/2026) ?.

Any info on which unit is currently heading to Wimbledon on 5Q30 ?.
 
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norbitonflyer

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weeklycommuter said:
The last time I made this journey was a year ago when SWR was still running Class 455s. The new Arterio trains have at long last been successfully rolled out over the last twelve months. Very few were running a year ago.
Click to expand...
There were eight a year ago, and 48 now. That's still only 80% of the 10-car, and 53% of the units (or 64% if you go by carriages)

Still some way to go
 
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TEW

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Next week's new 701 diagrams replaces a pair of 458/4s on Windsor services all day.
 
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adc82140

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TEW said:
Next week's new 701 diagrams replaces a pair of 458/4s on Windsor services all day.
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Is the 458/4 requirement reducing, or are these in turn displacing a couple of 450s from the Windsor/Reading side?
 
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444045

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Bobcp

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Snow1964

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swr444 said:
the MD recently said that the 458/4 retirement will start soon so I presume this is the beginning of it
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Although it is worth remembering that when the 458 upgrade and 4car conversion was announced in April 2021, they also said lease had been extended to 2027.

So not clear if they are being withdrawn (and returned) early, or just parked whilst still being paid for until next year until going off lease.

So 701s might be phased in, but if they are stuck with paying for 458s, then timescale of phasing in replacements might be lower priority
 
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Peter Sarf

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Stephen42 said:
There's a pair of paths to each of Derby Litchurch Lane and Wimbledon Park, one ROG and one GBRF. The Derby path from GBRF didn't run yesterday, the ROG is running today. After hitting Litchurch Lane it goes back to Bicester tonight for the Wimbledon path tomorrow. I'd guess that ROG is offering better commercial terms and their paths will run with the GBRFs one unused.

The 5Q30 Eastleigh 701/0 delivery looks to be today not tomorrow:

Realtime Trains | Just a moment

Realtime Trains is an independent source of live realtime running information for the Great British railway network.
www.realtimetrains.co.uk www.realtimetrains.co.uk

Edit: The Eastleigh one is on the move, the ROG path to Derby has been cancelled though loco arrived. Maybe only doing the Wimbledon delivery tomorrow
Click to expand...
Well, to recap
701014 came from Eastleigh to Wimbledon yesterday (Wednesday 22/04/26).
37501, 701507 & 701511 are currently on their way to DerbyLL from Bicester (Thursday 23/04026).
That seems to leave no loco for todays (Thursday 23/04/26) drag 5Q87 Bicester to Wimbledon as yesterdays move from Leicester was cancelled.
So I suspect that 5Q87 is a non-runner ?.
 
OneTrackMinded

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Snow1964 said:
Although it is worth remembering that when the 458 upgrade and 4car conversion was announced in April 2021, they also said lease had been extended to 2027.

So not clear if they are being withdrawn (and returned) early, or just parked whilst still being paid for until next year until going off lease.

So 701s might be phased in, but if they are stuck with paying for 458s, then timescale of phasing in replacements might be lower priority
Click to expand...
Since it’s all owned by the DfT now, they can just be transferred to another TOC. The use of 458s on another area of third rail was confirmed by Lawrence Bowman in one of his interviews.
 
vuzzeho

vuzzeho

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OneTrackMinded said:
Since it’s all owned by the DfT now, they can just be transferred to another TOC. The use of 458s on another area of third rail was confirmed by Lawrence Bowman in one of his interviews.
Click to expand...
Wait, what? They're confirmed to be going to someone else? That can only really be Southern or SE, right?
 
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