MORE than four years later than planned, Class 701s have begun carrying passengers for South Western Railway, although currently only one set is in traffic per day.
SWR ordered 90 third-rail Aventra electric multiple units from Bombardier Transportation in 2017 (Alstom bought the company in 2020) after it took over the South West franchise from Stagecoach. The trains were due to enter traffic from 2019, replacing Class 455, ‘456’, ‘458’ and ‘707’ EMU fleets. The first ‘701’ was shown to the press at an event at Derby Litchurch Lane on November 15, 2019. By that point there were already delays to the project.
Covid-19 affecting driver training, and various software issues with the trains, which then also affected confidence in the fleet operating in a uniform manner, have been cited as reasons for the lengthy delays getting the ‘701s’ into traffic.
A soft launch on
