Longer trains and extra seats for South Western Railway passengers from this December

• More new Class 707 trains being introduced from Monday 11 December through until early 2018
  

• New trains will provide much-needed extra capacity on busy peak routes
  

• Existing trains on these routes will reinforce services elsewhere, boosting capacity with an additional 5,000 seats

South Western Railway passengers will soon benefit from more than 100 additional carriages and extra capacity on some of the busiest routes. This has been made possible by Network Rail’s August works to extend platforms and increase capacity at Waterloo.

As part of the roll-out of new Class 707 trains, existing stock will be moved to elsewhere on the network to boost capacity, adding more than 5,000 additional seats for peak journeys by early 2018.

The new Class 707 trains will primarily go on the Waterloo, Windsor, Weybridge and Hounslow routes. The existing trains on these routes will then transfer onto Reading services allowing other trains to transfer to suburban and main line routes to help boost capacity elsewhere.

Morning and evening peak services will benefit in particular from Monday 11 December when the new timetable is introduced. A number of trains will be lengthened from eight to ten carriages, with others extended up to twelve carriages. Operation of longer trains on suburban services has been made possible by the platform lengthening works at Waterloo which Network Rail completed during the August partial closure.

Andy Mellors, Managing Director for South Western Railway, said:

“The introduction of new carriages is great news for passengers as they will unlock capacity across other parts of the network. Introducing these trains means we can make use of existing stock in the best possible way and implement real improvements in time for the new timetable this December. Between now and early 2018, passengers will really notice the difference especially during peak hours.”

Becky Lumlock, Route Managing Director for Network Rail, said:

“It’s fantastic to see the benefits of our £800 million upgrade at Waterloo and across the route reaching passengers, with longer trains and more comfortable journeys. And this is just the start. By the end of next year we will have reopened the former Waterloo International Terminal for domestic use, increasing capacity at the station by 30% at peak times.”

The August works saw 1,000 Network Rail engineers and track-side staff working over three and half weeks to prepare for longer trains, making significant changes to platforms, signalling and tracks in one of the biggest and most complex engineering projects in Waterloo station’s history.

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Improvements to train services from December 2017