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

lewisf

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I know we’ve only seen new diagrams this week but what’s a realistic timeframe for the next round?

Assuming that the driver training programme is continuing at pace surely they’ll need more services to be 701s in the near future.
 
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Bigfoot

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Was hoping for at least one new diagram a week tbh
I think one per fortnight is more realistic.
As more and more crew are trained the pool of usable crew increases, expect to see the initial increase start slow but ramp up over time. It becomes almost exponential in growth once the pool is large enough. I use the word almost. Not actually...
 

Goldfish62

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As more and more crew are trained the pool of usable crew increases, expect to see the initial increase start slow but ramp up over time. It becomes almost exponential in growth once the pool is large enough. I use the word almost. Not actually...
Yes, I recall the 450s. Started with a slow trickle then suddenly became a flood and it seemed they were everywhere overnight.
 

Stephen42

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Was hoping for at least one new diagram a week tbh
Many diagrams won't start and finish at the same place requiring alterations to the diagrams and/or multiple to be brought in at once. Those sort of alterations are easier to do less frequently, particularly as week to week won't be massive change in driver availability. Fortnightly changes have been common on rollouts elsewhere.
Oh - that's not what I had for Diagram 5, copied from a post up thread. has it been amended/corrected?
That's what has been running, as well as fewer diagrams many run differently to the longer term plan. This post on the diagrams thread has the current diagrams based on what was running earlier this week. 2V53 is on a different diagram in the long term plan, but is used to shorten or balance another diagram.

This approach reduces number of non-701 diagrams, though to introduce some of the additional diagrams the existing ones will need to run a few more services.
 

Goldfish62

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The latest cover of Modern Railways magazine has a panel about the 701s, and a rather worrying bullet point that states "455 life extension plans"
Cover of Modern Railway magazine, June 2025 issue

This doesn't make much sense considering the positive news recently and the plan to get 30-ish in by Christmas, which would cover most of the 455s with the remaining being operated by 450s and 458s.
Has something else gone wrong?
Sorry to disappoint anyone who might have thought this was something new :lol: but it's not. It's reporting on the revised training programme, with the briefest of mentions about the Class 455 corrosion repairs.
 
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Sorry to disappoint anyone who might have thought this was something new :lol: but it's not. It's reporting on the revised training programme, with the briefest of mentions about the Class 455 corrosion repairs.
It says "life extension to 2030" which I found a bit of a strange detail. Obviously they're not going to last that long..
 

wickham

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On Tuesday 20.05.25 5Q77 1617 Bicester to Willesden SWS forming 5Q77 1929 Willesden SWS ran hauled by 69008 - cetrainly conveying a 701 unit, but can anyone confirm which please?
 

Goldfish62

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It says "life extension to 2030" which I found a bit of a strange detail. Obviously they're not going to last that long..
Presumably the corrosion repair work is guaranteed for five years.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==

701's reliability has gone up quite a bit since last December with the miles per major failure now sitting at 9k compared to 4k.
Very impressive if it's maintained, but as Roger Ford has pointed out previously the average tends to fluctuate a lot with such a small operational fleet. Nevertheless, to date they've been at least as good as other Aventra fleets in the early days of introduction.
 

Cowley

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The discussion about GBR branded units is now here:
 

43096

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Very impressive if it's maintained, but as Roger Ford has pointed out previously the average tends to fluctuate a lot with such a small operational fleet. Nevertheless, to date they've been at least as good as other Aventra fleets in the early days of introduction.
Still a way off the contracted 45k target, though, and even further off the 458/0s (and indeed the slammers) at their peak.
 
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Article in today’s Financial Times - mentions DfT - First Group ‘dispute’ re. the 701s: https://on.ft.com/4kzAfDq
In a sign of the tensions between the government and some owning groups, Alexander said she had inherited "an abject mess from the private operator", speaking at a depot in Bournemouth.


Only five of a fleet of 90 new "Arterio" trains are available, following delays in building the trains and a row with unions over their safe introduction, including whether drivers or guards should operate the doors.


The trains, built by Alstom in Derby, were meant to enter service by 2019.


Department for Transport officials have written to First Group to accuse it of not informing them about January negotiations with unions regarding the trains.
Looks like SWR didn't let the DfT know about the negotiations with unions in January.
 

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