UK: South Western Railway has halted the project to refurbish 18 Class 442 electric multiple-units for its London Waterloo to Portsmouth route, and the sets will now be returned to leasing company Angel Trains.
Kiepe Electric had been awarded a £45m contract to undertaken an extensive refurbishment. As well as a full internal refurbishment and the fitting of brake controls from Knorr-Bremse, this was due to include the supply of an AC traction package featuring IGBT technology to replace the life-expired DC traction equipment, much of which had been recovered from 4-REP EMUs constructed in 1966-67.
The first refurbished sets entered service in May 2019 but were withdrawn several times until various faults were rectified. The class re-entered service on January 6 2020 with four available for use, but these were taken out of use in March when ridership dropped due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Sources at SWR told Rail Business UK that the sets were originally being retained to enable the TOC to accommodate passenger demand, but the impact of Covid-19 has meant that the extra capacity would no longer be required. In addition, the ageing EMUs would have faced new accessibility challenges from 2024 and further investment could not be justified.
Instead SWR has reached agreement with Porterbrook to extend the leases of 28 of the 36 Alstom-built Class 458 units for use on the London – Portsmouth route. These sets will pass through a refurbishment programme which will also see them returned to four-car formation and their maximum speed upgraded from 120 to 160 km/h.
The refurbishment of the Class 458s will commence as they are displaced from London – Reading services by the new Bombardier Transportation (now Alstom) Class 701 Arterio EMUs. Industry insiders suggest that the work could be carried out by Alstom, as it will involve upgrades to much of the technical equipment. Detailed plans and the actual timing of the project will be agreed once the refurbishment contract has been awarded.
Construction of the Class 442s began in 1986, with the first set handed over to British Rail on December 18 1987 and entry into passenger service in 1988.
SWT Engineering Director Neil Drury said ‘Covid-19 has dramatically reduced the number of customers travelling by rail, even with restrictions beginning to lift. As part of our commitment to adapting efficiently to these new circumstances, we have taken the decision to reduce costs by permanently withdrawing our fleet of Class 442 trains. Our customers will not see any change in service as a result of this decision, as these trains have not been required on our network since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. We will focus on introducing our new fleet of Class 701s later this year, providing additional state of the art trains for our customers, which will increase capacity on our metro services.’
