Done in 60 seconds!

Wednesday 19th September 2018

Time-lapse video shows complete South Western Railway train carriage refurbishment in one minute

South Western Railway is investing almost £110m refurbishing its existing Desiro and diesel fleets, and on revitalising its fleet of 18 Class 442s for the Portsmouth to London route.

Its Class 444 and 450 Desiro trains have seen millions of miles and millions of passenger journeys since they were introduced, but they are now starting to benefit from a full interior refurbishment to meet the needs of the modern-day passenger.

The £50m Desiro refurbishment programme is designed not only to improve the environment in which passengers travel, but also to increase seating capacity in standard class accommodation to meet the ever-growing number of passengers on one of Britain’s busiest railway networks. Siemens is carrying out a complete refurbishment of the train interiors, providing as-new interiors and increased seating capacity to help the rail operator deliver on its commitment to boost peak seats at Waterloo by 30% by December 2020.

Passengers travelling across the South Western Railway network will benefit from refreshed toilets, new Axminster carpets, new seat covers and at-seat charging points and a new on-train entertainment system. First Class accommodation will also see leather seats and innovative induction charging. All Desiro trains will also be reconfigured to provide additional standard class seating as part of a second phase.

Work began in December 2017 at Eastleigh, with first phase of refurbished Class 450 trains already back in service. The refurbishment work on its diesel fleet (Class 158 and 159) is already underway.

South Western Railway and Siemens have produced a time-lapse video which shows just what’s involved in the Desiro Class 450 refurbishment process. The whole carriage is stripped bare before work starts on reversing the process, ending up with a superb as-new interior. It takes about a week to do a four-car train, but the video shows how it’s done in about 60 seconds!

The video can be viewed here.

Later this year South Western Railway plans to start to introduce refurbished Class 442 trains which are due to serve London Waterloo and Portsmouth as well as London Waterloo and Bournemouth. Kiepe Electric UK is carrying out the refurbishment in two phases. The first phase includes interior improvements to include new seats, carpets, accessible toilets, improved Wi-Fi and a new on-board infotainment system, with next year seeing the start of phase two, which will involve changes to the cycle areas and replacing the traction units, bringing about better performance and reliability.

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