DEPOT SET FOR FURTHER EXPANSION
SWT’S SOUTH WEST LONDON SITE IS BUSY BOOSTING RELIABILITY OF ITS EXISTING FLEETS AS WELL AS PREPARING FOR THE ARRIVAL OF CLASS 707s
Wimbledon depot takes its Golden Spanners trophies seriously. The awards are on display as a reminder of the hard work put in by the resident South West Trains team.
But the emphasis is not just about competition with other depots or boosting morale: a reliable fleet is vital on the South Western main line, one of the busiest rail arteries in Europe. The impact of a train failure on the approaches to Waterloo during peak periods would be significant.
RECONFIGURATION
Capacity is scarce on the South Western main line. It is for this reason that, as part of its High Level Output Specification (HLOS) plan, SWT reconfigured its Alstom-built Class 458 fleet. The original 30x4-car units, first introduced in 1998, have been combined with carriages from the redundant Class 460 Gatwick Express fleet (also built by Alstom) to create 36x5-car units, now designated Class 458/5. The work was carried out by Wabtec at its Doncaster plant, with the last unit accepted by SWT in March 2016, just over two years later than planned. A major cause of delay was the …
