Class 701 'Aventra' trains for South Western Railway

[Bigfoot]

There was never a grounding of units. Just restrictions when they were in yards and people moving about around them at track level. One of the points was units were to be shutdown as much as possible when stabled. Hence the tail lamps in Clapham/Wimbledon.

 

[Goldfish62]

Roger Ford reports in his "Informed Sources" that the capacitor incident is not an Alstom-specific issue, but filed under "things that happen occasionally". Alstom is fitting stronger clamps to the casing.

 

[Robert Carroll]

Does anyone know how many of these units have been built, please?

 

[SansHache]

Roger Ford reports in his "Informed Sources" that the capacitor incident is not an Alstom-specific issue, but filed under "things that happen occasionally". Alstom is fitting stronger clamps to the casing.

It is the same issue as occurred on a refurbished Class 455 at Guildford in 2017. There is a comprehensive RAIB report on the incident.

Report 05/2018: Explosion inside an underframe equipment case at Guildford

Explosion inside an underframe equipment case at Guildford, 7 July 2017.

www.gov.uk

 

[Juniper Driver]

There was never a grounding of units. Just restrictions when they were in yards and people moving about around them at track level. One of the points was units were to be shutdown as much as possible when stabled. Hence the tail lamps in Clapham/Wimbledon.

…and the five or was it six in Feltham?

 

[Invincible]

Does anyone know how many of these units have been built, please?

From post 1 looks like 29 of the 90 have been delivered. Guess Rock has not yet borrowed money from Pension funds to pay Alstrom yet as they have not been accepted, and SWR First/MTR have not started the lease?.

Rock Rail and JII close £400 million financing deal for new East Midlands Railway trains - Rock Rail

Rock Rail announces Financial Close has been reached on its fourth new rolling stock deal with the financing of a new fleet of Hitachi trains for East Midlands Railway

rockrail.com

"As with Rock Rail’s previous UK new rolling stock deals, senior debt is provided by UK and international institutional investors with the funder group comprising of Aberdeen Standard Investments, Aviva Investors (on behalf of Aviva Life & Pensions UK), Scottish Widows and Sun Life Investments."

 

[Mikey C]

From post 1 looks like 29 of the 90 have been delivered. Guess Rock has not yet borrowed money from Pension funds to pay Alstrom yet as they have not been accepted, and SWR First/MTR have not started the lease?.

Rock Rail and JII close £400 million financing deal for new East Midlands Railway trains - Rock Rail

Rock Rail announces Financial Close has been reached on its fourth new rolling stock deal with the financing of a new fleet of Hitachi trains for East Midlands Railway

rockrail.com

"As with Rock Rail’s previous UK new rolling stock deals, senior debt is provided by UK and international institutional investors with the funder group comprising of Aberdeen Standard Investments, Aviva Investors (on behalf of Aviva Life & Pensions UK), Scottish Widows and Sun Life Investments."

So a fair chance that some of my pension money will be invested in the 701s when they finally work!

 

[Bletchleyite]

So a fair chance that some of my pension money will be invested in the 701s when they finally work!

One thing people often forget is that investment companies aren't some evil that just exist to asset strip companies to line their own pockets - most pensions are invested in them in some form.

 

[Robert Carroll]

Thanks, I hadn't seen that post 1 had been updated for deliveries. But, my question was how many have been built. I suspect it is more than have been delivered so far.

 

[Goldfish62]

Roger Ford reports in his "Informed Sources" that the capacitor incident is not an Alstom-specific issue, but filed under "things that happen occasionally". Alstom is fitting stronger clamps to the casing.

 

[swt_passenger]

Roger Ford reports in his "Informed Sources" that the capacitor incident is not an Alstom-specific issue, but filed under "things that happen occasionally". Alstom is fitting stronger clamps to the casing.

I thought that seemed familiar, had you not seen your original post #3992 earlier today? Possible software glitch?

 

[JamesC357]

Does testing of the 701s take place on weekends? Because I saw one at Waterloo at about 18:00 today, however I was too far away to see the number.

As a sidenote, the 455 I was on at the time (455707 I think), has a really old map above one of the doors. It still thinks you can take the Eurostar from Waterloo!

 

[TRAX]

Roger Ford reports in his "Informed Sources" that the capacitor incident is not an Alstom-specific issue, but filed under "things that happen occasionally". Alstom is fitting stronger clamps to the casing.

Alstom is going to end up re-building the whole trains…
What a poor show from Bombardier, then again that’s what they’ve been doing for the past decade before their takeover…

 

[fgwrich]

Alstom is going to end up re-building the whole trains…
What a poor show from Bombardier, then again that’s what they’ve been doing for the past decade before their takeover…

Well, it simply brings to mind the old expression of "Buy Cheap, Pay Twice". At least this is all coming at the expense of Alstom though - not something I'd imagined they'd be expecting to do though and had this occurred before the takeover, I wonder if it would still have gone ahead.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

As a sidenote, the 455 I was on at the time (455707 I think), has a really old map above one of the doors. It still thinks you can take the Eurostar from Waterloo!

Yes, they all have that, fifteen years after the interchange opportunity stopped (although technically you can still change at Waterloo for the Eurostar - only now you need to follow your rail journey with a trip on the Bakerloo and Victoria lines!)

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

Well, it simply brings to mind the old expression of "Buy Cheap, Pay Twice". At least this is all coming at the expense of Alstom though - not something I'd imagined they'd be expecting to do though and had this occurred before the takeover, I wonder if it would still have gone ahead.

There's over a 150 Aventras running which might not yet have golden spanner award wining stats, yet, but nevertheless are transporting 100,000's people daily going about their business. The 701's are an Aventra with a different cab thats all.

 

[fgwrich]

There's over a 150 Aventras running which might not yet have golden spanner award wining stats, yet, but nevertheless are transporting 100,000's people daily going about their business. The 701's are an Aventra with a different cab thats all.

There is that, but so far none of the Aventra fleets seem to have had a successful or soft launch! And there clearly is more to it than just a different cab, otherwise they'd be closer to an entry into service.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

There is that, but so far none of the Aventra fleets seem to have had a successful or soft launch! And there clearly is more to it than just a different cab, otherwise they'd be closer to an entry into service.

Not sure any new train has been super successful in the last 10 years but majority have got there in the end. The 80x's have pretty good reliability but have the fatigue issue hanging over them, the 385's showing good reliability but had the windscreen fiasco. C2C have there's delivered and there out testing them within a week.

This is an Aventra underneath so it will benefit from a big fleet driving reliability in the end once they get the cab issues sorted.

 

[Goldfish62]

Alstom is going to end up re-building the whole trains…

Doesn't sound like it to me. There's 23 faults to sort and then ASLEF will accept them. It's pretty obvious a lot of work has been done on them already.

 

[EdChap]

I noticed 5 Class 701 units parked up in Feltham Yard yesterday as I went past. Sorry, no unit numbers.

 

[Elorith]

Doesn't sound like it to me. There's 23 faults to sort and then ASLEF will accept them. It's pretty obvious a lot of work has been done on them already.

The question I suppose is just how much has been done and how much is there left to do

 

[Goldfish62]

The question I suppose is just how much has been done and how much is there left to do

What we do know is that the driver's desk has been completely redesigned and that several units have completed their fault-free mileage accumulation.

 

[LambicHedgehog]

Not sure if this has been shared here before:

There's a reddit user with a rather post-watershed username who has posted various rants about the issues with the 701s. They are quite interesting to read, though I note that their most recent post was over a month ago. They claim to be a SWR guard and have posted a few photos, including 2 unofficial images of the guard control panel and the cab CCTV display that I hadn't seen before. here's a link to the unofficial photos post (clicking on their username will let you view all their other posts about the 701s)

What we do know is that the driver's desk has been completely redesigned and that several units have completed their fault-free mileage accumulation.

Do we know which units have completed their fault-free mileage?

 

[Domh245]

They seem an interesting character! Creating 2 subreddits (with no users!) to rant about these units with some, curious, takes. I'd say that they seem to be a dinosaur but reddit is predominantly a young person's thing!

Ranting about a lack of guards offices/middle cabs and how Passing staff will have to (shock horror) slum it in the passenger areas I found particularly amusing. Similarly, the bit where they talk about they aren't sure what method of operation will be used, and how "it's almost certain the drivers will open the doors" - perhaps they were asleep during early 2021 when the new agreement was published confirming that

Additionally, under DCO operation, Guards will not lead in door operation at stations or perform their traditional role in dispatch. There will be some tasks where the Guards role is to assist the Driver. The detailed breakdown of roles and responsibilities will 4 be identified during the new train introduction process. Guards will perform all applicable duties as required by SWR.

I agree with them that the cab bits do look rather low quality, though I don't know if that's the 'finished look' or an early rebuild prototype. Seems like a consequence of complaining about the original anyway

 

[Bn2020]

I will say, purely as a passenger, that the open, walk-through nature of the trains, Air Conditioning and plenty of standing space seem likely to be a huge improvement over what is currently in use.
The sooner SWR and Alstom can get these trains in reliable service the happier I will be.

 

[Elorith]

Ranting about a lack of guards offices/middle cabs and how Passing staff will have to (shock horror) slum it in the passenger areas I found particularly amusing.

And, as they point out, if a service is full and standing and it's not physically possible to board a train they're diagrammed as PASS on they may not be able to get to where their booked work starts in time no?

 

[Agent_Squash]

And, as they point out, if a service is full and standing and it's not physically possible to board a train they're diagrammed as PASS on they may not be able to get to where their booked work starts in time no?

The back cab could surely be made available?

 

[boiledbeans2]

And, as they point out, if a service is full and standing and it's not physically possible to board a train they're diagrammed as PASS on they may not be able to get to where their booked work starts in time no?

Back cab?

 

[Lockwood]

Cab at the rear end, I'd guess

 

[357]

Back cab?

Most trains have a driver's cab at both ends.