The current state of the depot, due to open in 2015.
South West Trains have started the ball rolling on acquiring between 135 and 250 EMU vehicles. The idea is for 10 car peak services on the routes now having their platforms extended. Unusually they are looking for units of 3-5 carriages long with the first expected in service in July 2016 and the remaining trains all in service by July 2017. The valve of the contract is between £135-425m with a two year maintenance support package included.
Pervious discussions over the order did look at 200 carriages formed into 40 five car trains. This order could actually be a fair size bigger with Siemens and its Desiro Cities favourite to win the order. However in most month in Rail (issue 726), Christian Roth, SWT Engineering Director did suggest
That as well as a Siemens offering, Class 377 or 378s from Bombardier or another manufacturer’s train would be considered.
That said he did tease about having Southern’s 455 fleet once Thameslink “is running” (assume he means the KO2 timetable as Thameslink’s been running 25 years now). He did go on to say
That the new trains would be fitted with high-density interiors, and that new trains would be needed on the metro lines. They are not designed as a replacement for existing fleets.
The ordering of these additional units is in part possible to the retractioning of SWT’s 455 fleet with AC traction rather than DC. This will allow maintenance to be reduced and free up the sheds at Wimbledon to handle more rolling stock.
Siemens have shown off a picture of one of their new Desiro Cities in SWT livery, what could be the first Desiro in ‘metro red’ variant of their livery.
If the units are built by Siemens, the first will arrive in service only a few months after the first class 700 Desiro Cities for Thameslink. As Siemens recently back out of the Crossrail bid as they couldn’t supply both Thameslink and Crossrail trains at the same time, concerns have been expressed on if they can deliver an additional 250 units alongside the 1,140 Thameslink units. But by the time the first of SWT’s new units is expected to be in service the first class 700 train will have been running around for over two years meaning the class will not only have had major shake down tests but also cleared for UK running around a year before first delivery.
Delivery profiles of both the Thameslink units and SWT are around one new unit a week which may sound like a lot but production of the first Thameslink unit started in July 2013 with first unit delivery in December 2015, that’s 29 months. The entire 377/6 five car fleet of 140 carriages from Bombardier are taking 24 months to build so you can that there is space for the SWT order with Thameslink but there was never space for the 600 for Crossrail. Although originally it was expected Crossrail delivery schedule would have neatly followed on from Thameslink.
CGI mock up from Siemens showing off a new 8 car class 700/0 at Blackfriars.
We can expect to see this for real in mid 2016.
sparkyscrum 