Should SWR order more class 707s?

[Agent_Squash]

Moderator note: Split from https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/class-701-aventra-trains-for-south-western-railway.148717/

In any case I see no way the Treasury would authorise a replacement order of new stock. SWR would simply have to life extend its 455s and potentially source other suitable stock coming off lease, eg the Southern 455s.

They could have the new 707s built in Goole and call it levelling up.

Part of me thinks it makes a lot more sense than the current strategy. Order more 707s for SWR and take back the ones from SE, 701s go to SE. 450s could then be released to become the 2+2 Pompey trains. You've then got an all Siemens fleet on SWR, and an all Alstom (albeit different generations) fleet on SE.

But anyway, wasn't this what Stagecoach was planning to do all along?

 

[Goldfish62]

They could have the new 707s built in Goole and call it levelling up.

Or leave SWR with the oldest rolling stock fleet in the country as part of the strategy of levelling down London and the South East.

 

[JonathanH]

Order more 707s for SWR and take back the ones from SE, 701s go to SE.

If 701s don't work on SWR, what is the magical change which means they will work on the SE network?

 

[Goldfish62]

If 701s don't work on SWR, what is the magical change which means they will work on the SE network?

If it comes down to cab layout issues we already know that SWR ASLEF objects to certain elements which other branches are content with in Aventras that have been operating for many months/years elsewhere.

 

[Agent_Squash]

If 701s don't work on SWR, what is the magical change which means they will work on the SE network?

The issue, from my understanding, is industrial relations - not the trains. But without going too crayonista, it would be the most coherent rolling stock plan in the South East in a few years.

 

[Mikey C]

If it comes down to cab layout issues we already know that SWR ASLEF objects to certain elements which other branches are content with in Aventras that have been operating for many months/years elsewhere.

If the cab is different in the 701s, then drivers elsewhere would still have the same issues

Alternatively, if the cabs are fine, then the trains are fine and should operate the routes they were ordered for.

 

[Goldfish62]

If the cab is different in the 701s, then drivers elsewhere would still have the same issues

Alternatively, if the cabs are fine, then the trains are fine and should operate the routes they were ordered for.

As I posted earlier in this thread ASLEF demanded that changes were made to the cab layout that had been deemed acceptable elsewhere.