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

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Peter Sarf

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swt_passenger said:
This thread reports dozens of moves to/from a number of locations, and units have been up and down the mainline on and off for a few years now. Units have been shuffled around in both directions between for example Eastleigh TRSMD, Eastleigh works, MOD Marchwood, Long Marston, MOD Bicester, Worksop, etc etc…
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Dan G said:
Right; I've never been sure to what purpose :lol: .

If they have been run every month or two I would think the interiors and mechanicals are fine.
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Most of those locations are away from the third rail so all moves would require a locomotive. The units themselves would be bereft of power and heat.

Moves between Bournemouth, Wimbledon and Eastleigh TRSMD would likely be done self propelled so using the third rail.

I would say most of the 701s so far built have spent the vast majority of their lives away from the warming effects of the third rail. For the earliest units that must add up to years of inactivity and cold/damp.
 
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Sean Emmett

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bramling said:
Few will do that. But even something like Wokingham to Waterloo is a fairly long journ
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H&I said:
How many people travel all the way from Reading to London Waterloo with SWR?
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Quite a few when GWR goes down the pan. Or, more usually, the pan goes down..

Back to the 701s. Not experienced them yet but a 10 car 701 would be better than the 5 car 458 on offer for the 17.50 Waterloo - Reading on Tuesday.

Still not sure why its back to cramped 2+3 after the time / effort / money to re-config the 458s to 2+2 with more standing room. Never seen any report evaluating the outcome of that exercise. Apols if I missed it.
 
DelW

DelW

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Sean Emmett said:
Still not sure why its back to cramped 2+3 after the time / effort / money to re-config the 458s to 2+2 with more standing room. Never seen any report evaluating the outcome of that exercise. Apols if I missed it.
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I'm not sure what you're referring to there, but the 701s have 2+2 seating with a wide aisle.

There hasn't been an outcome for the 458/4s, as none of them have been used in service since their reconfiguration, nor seems likely to be for some time if ever.
 
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Sean Emmett

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Sean Emmett said:
Quite a few when GWR goes down the pan. Or, more usually, the pan goes down..

Back to the 701s. Not experienced them yet but a 10 car 701 would be better than the 5 car 458 on offer for the 17.50 Waterloo - Reading on Tuesday.

Still not sure why its back to cramped 2+3 after the time / effort / money to re-config the 458s to 2+2 with more standing room. Never seen any report evaluating the outcome of that exercise. Apols if I missed it.
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DelW said:
I'm not sure what you're referring to there, but the 701s have 2+2 seating with a wide aisle.

There hasn't been an outcome for the 458/4s, as none of them have been used in service since their reconfiguration, nor seems likely to be for some time if ever.
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Oops. I meant cramped 2+2 seating. The 458/5s have got it right. Spacious and comfortable enough 2+2 for longer journeys. But capacity for crush loading if/when necessary.

It's an hour plus to Ascot in the peaks now in reality, if not in the timetable. Only close up view I have had looking inside a 701 was 2 years ago (!) when one was stopped at Ascot, and I was underwhelmed. But if it's not as cramped as it looks, and the loos actually work (unlike 450s / 458s), then they might not be so bad!
 
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Goldfish62

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Sean Emmett said:
Oops. I meant cramped 2+2 seating. The 458/5s have got it right. Spacious and comfortable enough 2+2 for longer journeys. But capacity for crush loading if/when necessary.

It's an hour plus to Ascot in the peaks now in reality, if not in the timetable. Only close up view I have had looking inside a 701 was 2 years ago (!) when one was stopped at Ascot, and I was underwhelmed. But if it's not as cramped as it looks, and the loos actually work (unlike 450s / 458s), then they might not be so bad!
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The majority of Reading line services are provided by 450s, ie cramped 2+3 seating and narrow aisles (although they're still decent trains).
 
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SWT_USER

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I guess the rolloout will start to get more serious when they run the 701's in place of a proper Windsor servie rather than as an extra.. presumably that is too difficult to do at the moment due to lack of staff trained.

Are we likely to see every Waterloo - Windsor diagram as 701's before they are seen elsewhere on the network?
 
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norbitonflyer

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willt156

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norbitonflyer said:
Looks like it's actually still only one duty, but now with two return runs. 2U92 arrives platform 17 Waterloo at 1228 and 2U93 departs from that platform at 1253 - no ECS workings in or out in the intervening period.
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One could assume then that the plan may be to gradually increase the number of return journeys until enough staff are trained to move a 701 onto one of the regularly scheduled Windsor duties.
 
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Purple Train

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While I was in London yesterday, I didn't have time to both go to the National Gallery exhibition and go on the 701, and, since I had booked the exhibition before I knew that they were operating, and had invited a friend along, went with the gallery in order not to mess up our itinerary. We popped into Waterloo for some lunch, and noticed 701042 in the station, bright and gleaming. At which point, my friend (who is in no way an enthusiast, but travels regularly in south-west-land) said, "Hang on - those are new trains? I swear I've been on them loads before!"

Maybe their glasses were actually working - after all, I seem to remember that some official (possibly the then-MD), when these trains were announced as replacing the 707s, said that "customers won't be able to tell the difference between them and the new trains", or words to that effect! Quite a far cry indeed from the huge amount of "Arterio" marketing, to make them feel as exotic and different as possible.

Anyway, I'm glad that they seem to be continuing into next week - quite looking forward to sampling one!
WWTownEnth said:
What was activated today?
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The 701 diagram (i.e. it should run).
 
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Big Jumby 74

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SWT_USER said:
Are we likely to see every Waterloo - Windsor diagram as 701's before they are seen elsewhere on the network?
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Purely subjective, but based on the previous stock cascades (458/5, 456, 707 etc) this latest may follow the same pattern in general terms, although service reductions and timetable changes due to a certain bug doing the rounds recently, will likely have a bearing on matters. If the pattern does follow previous plans, the full conversion of the Windsor and Eton services (five circuits as was) might well be the aim, BUT, one has to remember that for every new 701 diagram, there will be a knock-on to the old stock on that diagram, meaning a change of diagram there also (even if it's just into the stored/withdrawn category), and I doubt the current Windsor and Eton diagrams will 'balance' themselves each night in the sense of a small micro fleet in diagram sense, and so it may be necessary to use 701's on other routes as well quite early on, to get the bigger picture to work, whilst the main focus may still be to get the W&ER services up and running first.
These sort of (introductory) schemes often attract much input from those involved in 'PR' spin, and while that does play a much larger part these days than back in BR days perhaps, at the end of the day a reliable introduction will be more down to the skills of the planners, fleet engineers, controllers etc., the people who know how to run a railway at grass 'routes' level.......pun intended..;)
 
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londontransit

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Mikey C

Mikey C

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Purple Train said:
While I was in London yesterday, I didn't have time to both go to the National Gallery exhibition and go on the 701, and, since I had booked the exhibition before I knew that they were operating, and had invited a friend along, went with the gallery in order not to mess up our itinerary. We popped into Waterloo for some lunch, and noticed 701042 in the station, bright and gleaming. At which point, my friend (who is in no way an enthusiast, but travels regularly in south-west-land) said, "Hang on - those are new trains? I swear I've been on them loads before!"

Maybe their glasses were actually working - after all, I seem to remember that some official (possibly the then-MD), when these trains were announced as replacing the 707s, said that "customers won't be able to tell the difference between them and the new trains", or words to that effect! Quite a far cry indeed from the huge amount of "Arterio" marketing, to make them feel as exotic and different as possible.

Anyway, I'm glad that they seem to be continuing into next week - quite looking forward to sampling one!

The 701 diagram (i.e. it should run).
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Visually, I imagine most non enthusiasts will easily tell apart the 701s and 707s, which are surprisingly different looking when you consider the 707s have the "challenging" Desire City front and sliding doors.
 
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londontransit

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norbitonflyer said:
Looks like it's actually still only one duty, but now with two return runs. 2U92 arrives platform 17 Waterloo at 1228 and 2U93 departs from that platform at 1253 - no ECS workings in or out in the intervening period.
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Yes its one train one duty two round trips as in the provisional SWR timetables I saw.

WWTownEnth said:
What was activated today?
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The 701s gain an extra round trip to Windsor and this was published on RTT today. Hence the 'activation.'
 
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IndianPacific

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Mikey C said:
Visually, I imagine most non enthusiasts will easily tell apart the 701s and 707s, which are surprisingly different looking when you consider the 707s have the "challenging" Desire City front and sliding doors.
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I (perhaps weirdly) quite like the looks of the Desiro City. But anyway, I’d be surprised if most SWR commuters could even remember if they got a mostly red, blue or grey train to work this morning, never mind what the front looked like.
 
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mangyiscute

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When I took the train I heard some people who I assume were regular users saying how they like the "new train" so they were clearly aware it was new, and it's good to hear they thought it was good
 
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Goldfish62

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mangyiscute said:
When I took the train I heard some people who I assume were regular users saying how they like the "new train" so they were clearly aware it was new, and it's good to hear they thought it was good
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Had that on my trip to Windsor the other day.
 
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