After a whopping five year delay, South Western Railway’s Class 701 Arterio trains have finally been launched. The vehicles are part of a £1bn investment aiming to bring more capacity to trains on the Reading, Windsor and south west London suburban routes.
Five out of 90 Arterio trains are already in service. They first sprung into action taking passengers from London Waterloo to Windsor in January this year. The rest of them will be rolled out gradually over the next two years, with vehicles service Dorking, Guildford and Reading expected within the next six months.
The fleet was ordered in 2017 and supposed to start running in November 2019. They were five years behind schedule thanks to extensive faults (mostly related to software), Covid-19 and pushback from unions.
In October, an SWR spokesperson said: ‘As is well documented, introducing the Arterios has been a major and complex project, introducing both a new fleet and method of operation, while facing extensive production and software issues and all against a backdrop of Covid and industry recovery.’
Some of the new trains have been given names referencing various parts of British sport. There’s Nighthawk (after the nickname of cricketer Stuart Broad), The Red Rose for English rugby at Twickenham, The Aces for Wimbledon and The Thames Racer in honour of the London boat race.
Britain by train
In other recent news from our railways, the UK’s first community-owned railway service will open in 2025, soon these two UK capital cities will be connected by train for the first time ever, this railway operator was ranked the best in Britain and you can have a first look inside England’s first luxury sleeper train.
ICYMI: These were Britain’s busiest train stations in 2024
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