IN ONE of the most unusual engineering solutions ever adopted, a fleet of trains that no one wanted any more and another that was once hailed as the least reliable in Britain – but has now actually become the most reliable – are being brought together to answer the calls for extra capacity on suburban lines to London Waterloo.

Eight redundant 8-car class 460 electric trains, once used by the former Gatwick Express franchise, and 30 4-car class 458 units, currently run by South West Trains on outer-suburban services, are being re-engineered in a £42 million project to create  ‘new’ 5-car trains, which will operate as 10-car pairs on suburban services on the Windsor lines, including the Hounslow Loop and to Weybridge.

The first pair of ‘new’ trains, each classified 458/5, is due to be delivered for trials to Wimbledon train maintenance depot in June and to go into public service during the summer. 

All 458/5 units – there will be 36 in total – will be put into service during the next year, marking the start of SWT’s aim to become a 10-coach railway, which also means major changes to the infrastructure, including signaling and longer platforms.  At Waterloo, the 10-car 458/5 pairs of units will use one of the former Eurostar platforms, the first to be brought into use for domestic services, which are situated adjacent to the existing ‘Windsor Lines.’

Tim Shoveller, managing director of the South Western Railway Alliance between SWT and Network Rail, says the trains are desperately needed:  “Although many old trains have been replaced since privatisation, we are still basically using the same number of trains in and out of Waterloo – even though we are now carrying 100 million more passengers a year.”

Referring to the innovative general manager responsible for wide-scale third-rail electrification of the Southern Railway in the 1920s and 1930s, Tim Shoveller said: “Sir Herbert Walker would thoroughly approve of our project that involves re-manufacturing trains to increase their length and the number of services we can operate on a railway that has become terribly congested.

“The South Western Railway is now so busy that even a minute’s delay to one train can destroy the peak service.”

Christian Roth, Fleet Director for the South West Trains-Network Rail Alliance, said creating the new fleet of class 458/5 trains was “much more complicated and more complex than buying new trains – but from an industry cost position it is better value for money.”

This, he explained, is because without the project Porterbrook Leasing would have had to scrap the former Gatwick Express trains and write off the cost across the industry in higher lease charges.
 
Both the class 460 and 458 units are part of the family of ‘Juniper’ trains built by Alstom at Washwood Heath, Birmingham, between 1998 and 2002. The Gatwick Express class 460s are mechanically similar to the Class 458s built for South West Trains, but the ‘Darth Vader’ nose cones on the Gatwick units gave them a very different look from the class 458s.  But the front ends will look completely different when the class 458/5 units appear, as they will be similar to the Siemens-built Desiros operated by SWT.

In their early years of operation, the 458s suffered major technical difficulties and became so unreliable that SWT planned to replace them with some of the large fleet of Desiros it had then opted for. However, reliability improved – so much so that by the end of last year the 458s, measured by the miles per technical incident, had become the most reliable trains in Britain.

Meanwhile, the class 460 units had been made redundant in 2010-11 after the Gatwick Express and Southern franchises were merged and the trains were replaced by refurbished BR-built class 442 units – which had been displaced from SWT by the new Desiros.

The idea of combining the 460s and 458s into new trains came from Porterbrook Leasing, which owns both fleets, and was agreed by the Department for Transport in December 2011. The re-engineering is being undertaken for Alstom by Wabtec Rail at Doncaster – where the trailer cars are being transformed – and at Wabtec Lougborough, where the class 460 driving luggage vans are being converted into passenger vehicles with windows, and where driving cabs are being fitted to the new fleet.

The cab ends on both Class 458 and on Class 460 vehicles will be compatible with the Class 450 Desiro fleet. Although there are no plans for it to happen in normal operations, it will be technically possible for the Alstom and Siemens units to operate together.

New Train Management System software is being installed to improve reliability together with Automatic Selective Door Opening, which is being added to SWT’s Desiro fleet as well, for use at suburban stations where it is not practicable to lengthen platforms.

The project also involves replacing the existing couplers and the retractable gangways between coaches. Internally, the refurbishment for suburban passengers includes reconfiguring the layout to provide more standing room, so most seating will be 2 + 2, although there will be some 2 + 3.

Traction motors on both the existing 460 and 458 units are being re-geared from 100mph (160km/h), which is not required on suburban services, to 75mph (120km/h) maximum to avoid overheating.

As the existing class 458 Alstom units are incorporated into the new fleet, they will be replaced on the Waterloo-Reading route by class 450 Desiros they will replace on the Windsor lines.  First Class accommodation, which was removed when the trains were sent to the Windsor route, will be restored.

The swap with units on the Reading route is necessary because platforms west from Virginia Water are not yet long enough for 10-car trains, except at the rebuilt Reading station, and the electric power supply requires upgrading.  Both projects are planned during the next control period – 2014 and 2019.

Together with 48 2-car class 456 units – which will be transferred next year from Southern to SWT to lengthen trains on Waterloo-Woking-Guildford via Cobham, Kingston loop, and Waterloo-Hampton Court services from 8 to 10 coaches – the class 458/5 units will create space for 23,000 extra peak-time passengers by December 2014, according to SWT.

• Observant readers will have noted that the 8 Class 460 trains and the 30 class 458s comprise a total of 184 vehicles, – but 36 5-car class 458/5s only require 180 vehicles. Alstom explains that the four class 460 vehicles not required for conversion will be retained as a source of strategic spare parts.