South West Trains - South West Trains Rolling Stock - H

South West Trains - H

South West Trains Rolling Stock

South West Trains Electric

South West Trains Desiro Fleet

The introduction of Desiro rolling stock built by Siemens was to replace the old Class 411, Class 412, Class 421 and Class 423 slam-door trains, which were life-expired and did not meet modern health and safety requirements; a franchise commitment was to replace all slam-door stock by the end of 2005.

The Desiro trains have on-board information systems and full air-conditioning. Their faster acceleration is counterbalanced by the need to dwell longer at each station, since they have fewer doors.

The Desiro stock comes in two variants

Class 450 units which have four 20 m cars and are mainly used on suburban and outer-suburban services.
Class 444 units which have five 23 m cars as well as intercity-style door layouts and are used on longer-distance services to Weymouth and Portsmouth Harbour.

British Rail EMUs (Class 455)

South West Trains operated a fleet of Class 455 metro-style commuter trains on services from London Waterloo to Shepperton, Hampton Court, Woking, Guildford, Dorking and Chessington, as well as services on the Kingston and Hounslow loops and occasionally on Windsor line services. These were built for British Rail.

A full refurbishment programme started in 2004 on the fleet of 91 four-car units, and was completed in March 2008. Modifications included a new 2+2 seating layout with high-back seats, CCTV, cycle storage, wheelchair space, doors that open further to allow for faster alighting, and additional passenger information systems.

British Rail EMUs (Class 456)

All 24 Class 456 two-car EMUs were transferred from Southern to SWT, with the first units entering SWT service on 23 March 2014. These early 1990s-built units are compatible with the existing Class 455 fleet and are coupled with these to form ten-car trains, increasing capacity on some local services in and out of Waterloo.

Coradia Juniper fleet (Class 458/0 – 458/5)

Thirty of these four-car units were ordered by South West Trains in 1998, to create extra capacity and to replace some of the ageing Class 411 (4-CEP) trains, which at the time were on short-term lease. Deliveries of these trains began in 1998.

The class suffered major technical problems, so in the end, none of the older trains were withdrawn from service at that time. It was six more years, in 2004, before the full fleet was in service. In 2003 and 2004, reliability was so poor that, although they were only six years old, South West Trains decided that the units should be replaced by 2005 with the newer Class 450 Desiro units.

Only a handful of units were required each day to help maintain services from Waterloo to Reading, and these had been expected to cease after 31 July 2006, when the lease with the rolling stock company expired. An application by SWT to extend this by six months was refused, as the class did not meet all the requirements of disability legislation.

However, later it was decided that, on or before the start of the new franchise in February 2007, the class would be reinstated and take over all operations on the Waterloo to Reading line, indirectly covering the loss of the Class 442. They have been fitted with new, larger destination screens that comply with the disability legislation, but the trains still fall foul in some other areas, such as the height of the door-open buttons.

All 30 Class 458 trains were split up and the 120 vehicles reconfigured into 36 five-car sets, incorporating 60 extra vehicles from the mechanically similar Class 460 formerly used on Gatwick Express services. The five-car sets are now designated Class 458/5 and since 2014 have been coupled together to form ten-car trains.

The first two of the five-car sets were delivered in October 2013, and underwent testing ahead of the introduction of the first ten-car train into service in December 2013. Passenger service started in March 2014, with the work concluding in 2016, thereby rendering the Class 458/0 extinct.

South West Trains Diesel

South West Trains had 11 two-car Class 158 units and 30 three-car Class 159 units (22 Class 159/0 and eight Class 159/1).

The Class 159/1 units were converted at Wabtec, Doncaster from Class 158s, received from First TransPennine Express in exchange for Class 170s. Eleven further two-car Class 158 units were received from First TransPennine Express, which were also refurbished at Wabtec.

The Class 159 has on occasion been used for railtours.

South West Trains Overview

South West Trains Franchise(s):

South West

4 February 1996 – 3 February 2007

South Western

4 February 2007 – 20 August 2017

South West Trains Main region(s):

Greater London

Surrey

Hampshire

Isle of Wight

Dorset

South West Trains Other Region(s):

Berkshire

Wiltshire

Somerset

Devon

South West Trains Fleet Size: 373

1 Class 73 electro-diesel locomotive

11 Class 158 Express Sprinter sets

30 Class 159 South Western Turbo sets

45 Class 444 Desiro sets

127 Class 450 Desiro sets

91 Class 455 sets

24 Class 456 sets

36 Class 458 Juniper sets

2 Class 707 Desiro City sets

6 Class 483 sets

South West Trains Stations Called at: 213

South West Trains Stations Operated: 185 (including Island Line)

South West Trains Parent company: Stagecoach

South West Trains Reporting mark: SW

South West Trains Predecessor: Network SouthEast

Island Line (Island Line franchise)

South West Trains Successor: South Western Railway

Rail Holidays
Rail Vacations

Luxury Trains
Luxury Tours

International Trains
International Tours