Passengers to benefit from ^210m train order for UK's busiest commuter network

[whole diary]

[stuving]

From South West Trains News

Passengers to benefit from ^210m train order for UK^▸ (United Kingdom)'s busiest commuter network

• 150 new train carriages will deliver major boost in capacity at South West Trains
  
• Investment will provide for more than 24,000 extra peak-time passengers
  
• Contract award agreed with Department for Transport, Siemens and Angel Trains
  
• 140 new jobs created in boost for rail sector employment 
  
• Comprehensive plans developed by South West Trains-Network Rail Alliance in response to the Department for Transport^s Rail Investment Strategy
  
• Plans to accommodate growth also include major infrastructure improvements
  

Plans for a ^210m fleet of new trains to benefit passengers on the UK^s busiest commuter rail franchise moved forward today (3 September 2014) as South West Trains announced its intention to award the contract to manufacturer Siemens and leasing company Angel Trains.

The 30 new five-carriage Desiro City trains will boost capacity on services at South West Trains, providing for more than 18,000 extra peak-time passengers every day travelling into London Waterloo, the country^s busiest station.  The train order will also allow for a further 6,000 daily peak-time passengers once infrastructure upgrades are completed on the mainline and Hounslow loop.

The first of the 150 new carriages will begin arriving in 2017 and all will be in service by early 2018.

[continues at some length]
 

[Surrey 455]

From South West Trains New

Passengers to benefit from ^210m train order for UK^▸ (United Kingdom)'s busiest commuter network

• 150 new train carriages will deliver major boost in capacity at South West Trains
  
• Investment will provide for more than 24,000 extra peak-time passengers
  
• Contract award agreed with Department for Transport, Siemens and Angel Trains
  
• 140 new jobs created in boost for rail sector employment 
  
• Comprehensive plans developed by South West Trains-Network Rail Alliance in response to the Department for Transport^s Rail Investment Strategy
  
• Plans to accommodate growth also include major infrastructure improvements
  

Plans for a ^210m fleet of new trains to benefit passengers on the UK^s busiest commuter rail franchise moved forward today (3 September 2014) as South West Trains announced its intention to award the contract to manufacturer Siemens and leasing company Angel Trains.

The 30 new five-carriage Desiro City trains will boost capacity on services at South West Trains, providing for more than 18,000 extra peak-time passengers every day travelling into London Waterloo, the country^s busiest station.  The train order will also allow for a further 6,000 daily peak-time passengers once infrastructure upgrades are completed on the mainline and Hounslow loop.

The first of the 150 new carriages will begin arriving in 2017 and all will be in service by early 2018.

[continues at some length]
 

Is this a previously known about order or is this the first we've heard about it?

[stuving]

Is this a previously known about order or is this the first we've heard about it?

Looking back, there was an item on this board a year ago, see: SWT^▸ (South West Trains) ordering new rolling stock. At that stage it was just a request for expressions of interest from suppliers, for 135 to 250 cars.

[paul7575]

The tender was issued a month later than the expressions of interest linked in the other thread mentioned earlier, in Sept 2013.  It is basically the rolling stock required to achieve the remaining 10 car train lengthening in the SWT^▸ (South West Trains) area, on the Waterloo to Reading route.

However the new trains will actually be inner suburban layout and will go onto the Windsor/Hounslow loop/Weybridge services, and it is expected the Reading 10 car trains will be the 458/5 fleet - with first class reinstated.

To clarify, the present project to lengthen the 458s and move them off Reading services is about a year late, and was a CP4^▸ (Control Period 4 - the five year period between 2009 and 2014) plan which was first tendered back in 2010 or so...

Paul

[stuving]

Here's the getwokingham/Wokingham Times take on this news:

More seats on the way for South West Trains passengers into Waterloo
Sep 10, 2014 08:14 By David Millward
The train company says it will mean 18,000 extra peak-time seats for passengers travelling into Waterloo, with longer trains running from Reading


An artist's impression of a new Desiro City Train

Commuters travelling between Reading and Waterloo will have more chance of finding a seat, following an order for a ^210 million fleet of new trains.

South West Trains, which runs services across South and South West England, has awarded the contract for 150 new train carriages to engineering firm Siemens and leasing company Angel Trains.

The train company says it will mean 18,000 extra peak-time seats for passengers travelling into Waterloo, with longer trains running from Reading on the line, which runs through Wokingham and Bracknell.

Tim Shoveller, chief executive for the South West Trains-Network Rail Alliance, said: ^These exciting plans will deliver the biggest step-change in capacity and service to our customers on the network in decades.^

The first of the 30 new five-carriage Desiro City trains will begin arriving in 2017 and all will be in service by early 2018.

The number of passengers using South West Trains has increased by more than 100 per cent over the last 20 years and now more than 222 million passenger journeys are made on the network every year.

A Rail Passenger Survey in spring revealed 60 per cent of customers were satisfied with the room for passengers on South West Trains while 24 per cent were dissatisfied and 16 per cent neither.

The new order is part of a five-year plan by the Alliance to improve services, including the purchase of 108 additional refurbished carriages, longer platforms, the full re-opening of platforms at the former Waterloo International Terminal and other infrastructure projects.

Network Rail^s ^895 million upgrade of the rail network around Reading has included the lengthening of the platform which serves the Waterloo route to allow 10 carriage trains.

Mr Shoveller said: ^As well as providing extra space for passengers using our services now, the combination of investment in the infrastructure and these new trains will create space at Waterloo that is the essential first step to allow an increase in capacity for our longer distance, mainline services.^

Steve Scrimshaw, managing director at Siemens Rail Systems, said: ^The new Desiro City trains will transform the lives of passengers travelling on south-western England^s rail network.

^No other train in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) is as technologically advanced and offers as many benefits in terms of passenger environment, capacity and reliability.^