NO RETURN FOR ‘442s’

SOUTH Western Railway caused a stir at the end of March when it announced the refurbished Class

442 EMUs would not now be used on services to Portsmouth. The ‘442s’ date back to 1988 and Weymouth Line electrification but, after their use with other operators, SWR announced plans in 2017 to bring back and upgrade 18 units for the Portsmouth Line. Much of this work has been completed, but now the future of the fleet looks bleak as Class 458s will be used instead. Porterbrook has chosen that Alstom has won the £25 million contract to upgrade the ‘458s’ and regear them for 100mph running.