SWR Aventra unveiled - but service entry is delayed to 2021
THE first of Bombardier’s new £895 million Aventra Class 701 fleet for South Western Railway has been unveiled at Derby Litchurch Lane.
The electric multiple units had been contracted to start carrying passengers from next month, but the first ‘701’ has not yet been delivered for testing. With thousands of testing miles required, and hundreds of drivers needing training, entry into traffic has been put back to mid-2021.
The trains will operate on SWR’s suburban network from Waterloo across south west London as far as Guildford, and on the Reading and Windsor lines in Berkshire.
Ninety trains, comprising 750 vehicles (60 ten-car and 30 fivecar), are to be completed over the following 12 months, instead of the 17-month programme originally agreed.
The trains lie at the heart of two years of strikes by guards in the RMT union. There have been 38 strike days so far, with a further 27-day stoppage scheduled for almost the whole of December.
Like all Aventras, the SWR fleet is designed for Driver Controlled Operation (DCO). However, the RMT continues to insist that guards operate the doors instead, on safety grounds.
SWR has stated repeatedly that it will retain a guard on the new trains. It also employs more guards now than it did when the strikes began in November 2017. It is the precise duties of those guards that remains the stumbling block.
Throughout the dispute, SWR has stated that it wants to use the most efficient method of working the new Class 701 trains.
Evidence suggests that Driver Controlled Operation can save several seconds at each stop. RSSB (formerly the Rail Safety & Standards Board) has advised that this way of working is at least as safe as having doors closed by guards.
After two years of hugely damaging strikes, SWR Engineering Director Neil Drury is clear that door operation remains the critical area of disagreement with the RMT.
“It is all about the method of operation of the doors,” he said.
“We are dedicated to providing the safest solution that maximises
performance and benefits our customers.
“The industry view is that drivers opening the doors is the solution that provides that answer. We are liaising with our stakeholders, our unions and our employees on the best way of operating these trains.
“It is taking far longer than anyone would like. We are absolutely committed to having guards on these new trains. What we have not resolved yet are their operational duties. It is obviously frustrating.”
The delayed delivery of the Derby trains undermines SWR’s franchise contract. It has promised that every train in its fleet would be replaced or refurbished.
The first completed five-car train was driven by test driver Barry White on the short track at Litchurch Lane.
“The Aventras are all the same, really,” he said. “Good at accelerating, good at braking. Comfy. Yeah, good trains.”
Although the network on which it will operate is entirely thirdrail, the first SWR train is also fitted with a pantograph to draw its power from overhead wires.