London commuters are to benefit from longer peak-time trains and extra services as part of an investment announced by the Department for Transport (DfT) and South West Trains which ‘will also create new jobs’.
An additional 60 carriages are being added to the South West Trains fleet, which operates on one of the busiest commuter networks in Europe.
Around 8,000 extra peak-time passengers will be able to travel into London Waterloo every morning as eight car trains are lengthened to run with 10 carriages.
Services from Windsor, Weybridge (via Staines,) and Hounslow (via both Richmond and Brentford) will be lengthened.
Two additional Reading-Waterloo trains will run each way, together with an additional morning peak Hounslow-Waterloo service.
The additional trains will use platform 20 at the former Waterloo International Terminal, which will come back into use from 2014.
A limited number of mainline trains between London Waterloo and Portsmouth, Southampton and Alton will also be lengthened by cascading rolling stock.
The enhanced services will be delivered through the refurbishment of 60 former Gatwick Express Class 460 Juniper vehicles, combined with refurbished trains from South west Trains’ existing fleet.
The additional carriages will begin arriving from May 2013, with all new services in place by July 2014, benefiting millions of passengers a year.
There are around 54 million passenger journeys a year on the Windsor lines alone, with passenger numbers up 4.4% in the past 12 months.
Work on the trains, leased through Porterbrook, will be carried out by Alstom, providing a boost to UK-based train engineering. It is also expected to create new jobs at South West Trains.
Andy Pitt, Managing Director of South West Trains, said:
“We operate one of the busiest commuter networks in Europe and this will provide extra capacity for the increasing number of people who are choosing to travel by train.
“We have already significantly increased peak-time suburban and mainline capacity under our franchise. This new investment in longer trains and extra services will bring further much needed extra capacity and will be a huge boost to millions of commuters.
“It is also good news for taxpayers and for jobs. We delivered a good, cost-effective deal for the taxpayer by converting existing modern trains that will be compatible with our existing fleet.
“It will help support UK rail engineering and create extra jobs at South West Trains.”
The improvement package agreed between the DfT and South West Trains will also see money invested in train depots at Wimbledon, Farnham and Clapham, as well as the creation of two new sidings by infrastructure operator Network Rail at Guildford.
Network Rail is continuing to progress plans to make further use of London Waterloo and Waterloo International to cope with future demand.
South West Trains – part of Stagecoach Group – is one of the most punctual train operators in the UK.
Latest figures show annual punctuality running at 92.7%. Customer satisfaction is higher than the UK average, with the most recent independent National Passenger Survey showing that 85% of passengers are satisfied with their train service.
More than £100m is already being invested by South West Trains in a range of improvements for passengers on its rail network. It includes:
- £50m in better station facilities
- Creation of 2,000 additional car parking spaces
- Train fleet investment
- Better information for passengers, with the launch of a dedicated Twitter-feed, bespoke email travel alerts and a new mobile website
- Introduction of 2,500 new cycle spaces
- Additional customer help-points and ticket vending machines.
