BRITISH passenger operator South Western Railway (SWR) has announced that the first of 90 Aventra EMUs being supplied by Alstom has entered passenger service, branded as Arterio by SWR.
The first journey made in revenue service from London Waterloo to Windsor & Eton Riverside and back on January 9 marked the first step of in the phased rollout of the Arterio fleet.
“These trains will be the beating heart of our commuter network,” SWR says, delivering more capacity and better performance.
The new EMUs feature on-train toilets accessible to passengers with reduced mobility, as well as Wi-Fi, charging points, air-conditioning and full-width gangways between cars.
The class 701 Arterio fleet will eventually comprise 60 10-car and 30 five-car trains, which will replace SWR’s entire commuter fleet of class 455, 456, 458 and 707 EMUs.
Introduction of the new trains was originally scheduled for December 2019, but has been delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic and wide variety of faults including problems with on-train software, door obstacle detectors, the coupling process, windscreen wipers and cab doors.
Delays to Aventra production in Britain at the former Bombardier plant in Derby had a negative impact on Alstom’s profitability in the first half of the 2023-24 financial year, contributing to a negative free cash flow of €1.12bn.
In October 2023 Alstom expected to complete the Aventra programme at the start of 2024-25, having failed to do so during the first half of 2023-24 as expected.
“It’s an amazing moment for us all at South Western Railway as we see our first train in service,” says SWR managing director, Ms Claire Mann.
“This is a first step towards the rollout of these trains into operation, but a really, really important moment.”
“These trains are going to bring a fantastic customer experience and they’re going to increase capacity across the suburban network,” says SWR chief operating officer, Mr Stuart Meek.
“As we learn from today, the experience of putting this train into passenger service, we can learn the lessons and get the rest of the fleet in service as soon as possible.
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