South Western Railway has announced that they will be a delay to their fleet of Class 442s entering service.
The newly refurbished trains were due to start entering passenger service next week.
However, due to an issue with one of the trains door safety systems being found, the train company has decided to delay the introduction of the trains.
As a result, two new services planned as part of Class 442 introduction will be postponed for a short period until the issue is addressed.
What did the officials say?
Andy Mellors, Managing Director of South Western Railway, said:
“We had planned to introduce three newly-refurbished 10-car Class 442 trains with the start of the new summer timetable but unfortunately an issue with a safety feature of the doors has emerged this week.
“Until this issue is rectified we cannot put the trains into service and risk passenger injury. Safety has to be our number one priority.
“Clearly not being able to run them will have some implications, but our train planning team has worked hard to mitigate the effect of this on our customers, with the result that we expect to suspend no more than ten of the 300 planned new services each week when the summer timetable starts (Sunday 19 May).
“Meanwhile our engineers will continue to work hard to resolve the safety issue so that the Class 442 fleet can be safely introduced, and the full benefits of the new timetable can be realised.
“Although the issue with the Class 442s is a set-back it does not alter the fact that the new timetable will see the introduction of around 300 additional services every week, providing new journey opportunities for customers across our network.”
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Interior has been decimated – now fitted with a desiro 450 interior
What is happening to the other 6 Class 442s as South Western Railway have inherited 18 Class 442s and are going through a complete refurbishment.
Shame that SWR won’t allow the Class 442s to begin service but it’s been delayed because of door safety issues. I think these trains could be given approval to start service from Autumn or before the end of 2019.
It will be good to see them back in service, I remember thinking after they had been withdrawn “what a waste-the ride quality and general level of comfort much better than subsequent builds”, although refurb may have squeezed the interior design; time will tell.
Sorry 1987 the Class 442s were built*
Plus the Class 442 were built in 1988 making them 31 years old.
Very disappointed because the Class 442 “Wessex Express” are the most reliable DC 750v 3rd Rail only EMU trains that were once used on London Waterloo-Portsmouth, Southampton, Bournemouth, Poole, Weymouth and Basingstoke. Then were used on Gatwick Express for few years before Class 387/2 replaced the Class 442. Very disappointed.