The Class 707 trains by Siemens will get a new lease of life, with the type to be re-launched by Southeastern Railway.
Southeastern will take over the 30 Class 707 trainsets – made up of five carriages per train. Currently, these are operated by South Western Railway, which is in the process of replacing them with their Class 701 Arterio trains.
The trains will offer increase standing and seating capacity, with 271 seats. They will offer plug sockets and wi-fi aboard, along with two wheelchair spaces per 5-carriage train, airconditioned with improved heating and ventilation and Passenger information screens throughout the train.
Interior
Inside with explanations – Image, Southeastern
However, you’ll note that these trains will not feature toilets when they are upgraded (as such, they do not have them when initially sold to be used on South Western Railway)
As such, the trains will be focused on Metro routes from Dartford, Sevenoaks and Hayes into London terminals.
The train is from the Desiro City line that Siemens offers – and is akin to the trains used on Thameslink and Great Northern.
The trains will partially replace the existing Class 465/466 “Networker” trains that were introduced in the 1990s.
Introduction into service
The launch of the preview service in the Autumn will be followed by the full service later in 2022 when all 30 units have transferred across from South Western Railway. This may be contingent on South West Railway getting enough Class 701 trains to cover the 707s leaving the fleet, as well as when a sufficient number of trains have transferred refreshed, deep-cleaned and updated, ready for use on the Southeastern network.
Southeastern has already received six Class 707 trains since January, which are currently being housed at Ashford, Grove Park and Slade Green depots. These units are being used for maintenance and driver training, as well as station compatibility tests. The next two 5-car trains are expected to be delivered in July 2021.
In Quotes
David Statham, Managing Director at Southeastern said:
“Bringing in modern, reliable trains with more space is an important part of the work we are doing to encourage people back to rail travel.
“Following a great effort by everyone across the railway, I’m very pleased to confirm that our new trains are getting set to carry passengers later this year.
“The Class 707 represents a big investment in our train fleet and I’m really looking forward to welcoming our customers aboard.”
Rail Minister Chris Heaton Harris said:
“This is a welcome upgrade for passengers on Southeastern’s network.
“As the nation starts moving again following the pandemic, passengers will benefit from modern, clean, reliable trains that will make it even better to travel by rail”.
Sambit Banerjee, Managing Director Rolling Stock and Customer Services for Siemens Mobility Limited said:
“We were delighted to see the Siemens Mobility Class 707s moving over to their new home at Southeastern. It has been a great collaborative effort since then between Siemens Mobility and Southeastern operational teams to get the trains ready for service, which has continued throughout the Covid 19 lockdown.
“We look forward to supporting passengers travelling into London from the South East on comfortable, air conditioned trains and continuing our great partnership with Southeastern.”
Surplused before they rolled a wheel in action
The Class 707 trains have had an unhappy history. The 30 units were initially ordered by Angel Trains on behalf of South Western Trains (the previous franchise operator, run by Stagecoach). However, when the bids came in for the new franchise (operated by FirstGroup), they found it cheaper to sideline these trains in favour of a mass renewal of their suburban fleet.
This was before one of them rolled a wheel carrying a passenger.
These trains operated once for their original operator – so that a franchise tick box could be completed. Since then, they have been slowly introduced into service with South Western Railway, even as they had no long-term home to go to.
With the trains joining the suburban fleet at Southeastern over the next year or so, hopefully, the trains can be exploited to their full potential – either as five-car people movers or as ten-car mass people movers as the world slowly wanders back into cities.
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