One Arterio finally in service

Thursday 25th January 2024

I know I’m late to the “let’s finally welcome SWR’s new Arterio trains into service” party with lots of online coverage already available following SWR’s ‘soft launch’ a fortnight ago of one train running a limited service, but 14 days is nothing compared to the four year wait to see these 90 trains earn their £1 billion price tag.

But we are where we are and at least one train making two Waterloo to Windsor & Eton Riverside return journeys each weekday off-peak is better than the void we’ve had since 2019 when the first trains were delivered.

The two journeys leave Waterloo at 10:25 and 12:53 returning from Windsor & Eton Riverside at 11:30 and 14:00 running as extras to the normal half hourly service thereby giving a nice surprise to the few passengers turning up early for their normal train.

Built by Bombardier – which was bought out by Alstom in 2021 – these Class 701 trains which SWR are branding Arterio are part of Bombardier/Alstom’s wider Aventra family which has seen similar trains introduced at London Overground, Greater Anglia, c2c, the Elizabeth Line and West Midlands Trains (WMT) but each train company has its own take on internal fitting out.

Having sampled a return journey to Windsor on Tuesday there are many positives to report on the Arterio travel experience, but also a few niggles too.

Firstly, for a commuter railway, the seating is getting on for as good as it gets. No London Overground/Elizabeth Line inward facing longitudinal seats here…

… nor Greater Anglia 3+2 seats with a central gangway you can hardly walk down without having to part turn sideways …

… and you won’t find Greater Anglia’s tip up seats getting in the way of the doors with constricted entry/exit.

These Class 701s are all 2+2 seating with a mixture of airline style and facing pairs around a mini-table and with a nice wide gangway.

But what a shame there are no seat back trays for those with lap tops and coffee cups – two staples of many commuters these days.

Indeed, the interior decor is a bit ‘Thameslink Siemens Class 700/717-like’ in terms of colour and fairly restricted leg room in the airline seats …

… and the fact the seats are hard up against the sides …

… with a protruding skirting panel making it a bit awkward on the nearside compared to sitting in the gangway seat where there’s more room to stretch your legs.

I noticed when the mini-tables are in use by a laptop user there’s not much room for anything else.

It’s a shame they couldn’t have been extended the full width of the double seat as on WMT’s Class 730s.

At the end of each coach the seat pairs may have a mini-table but sadly one seat doesn’t enjoy a window view, but there again, you can’t have everything and someone has to forgo a window.

The ten coach trains are walk through with a wheelchair area and accessible toilet in coaches 3 and 8 …

… along with a bicycle storage area by the other door.

Although these are marked on the outside, I wouldn’t describe the identifiers as prominent.

Indeed, when the doors are open the symbols disappear leaving just smaller ones on the doors themselves which can easily be missed.

Door markings on WMT’s Class 730s are much more prominent.

Immediately behind the cab there’s a pair of facing seats with a mini-table but I’m told these have been installed at the expense of a larger cab and drivers are not happy at its small size.

Those two lockable cupboards, this side of the seats in the photo above, are where a driver or a co-driver can store his/her bag such is the lack of room in the cab. It’s interesting to compare this layout to the Greater Anglia’s Class 720 with a larger cab and two more seats squeezed in.

Drivers open the doors at stations but the responsibility for closing them varies between the driver and the guard depending on the station. It all sounds like a fudge to resolve what has been a long running dispute with the unions which has been part of the reason for the delayed introduction.

There’s the usual audio visual screens/announcements with updates on journey progress and London Underground status.

Quite why the words Eton Riverside weren’t spelt out in full on the above display is a mystery although if the late Queen was still alive one might think it was a reference to her link with Windsor, I suppose.

I found the two loading/toilet utilisation screens a bit confusing with both displaying one after the other in all the coaches.

The Thameslink arrangement of showing all 12 coaches on one screen with an arrow showing which coach you’re in is much clearer and more understandable.

There’s another information screen either side of each door showing the journey details and the next station.

The door area is very wide and has a litter bin as well as other unidentifiable cupboards.

Another place where seats have been squeezed in is by the accessible toilet where a row of tip ups when in use makes for a very difficult walk through as is the case in many new trains.

Each seat pair has a gangway grab handle which is handy for standing passengers as well as others walking through the train if needing to hold on.

The luggage racks have clear bottoms to what now seems to be an industry standard.

The trains, which give a very smooth ride, are a welcome improvement on those they’re replacing (Classes 455, 456, 458 and 707) and let’s hope more than one will soon be introduced into service although it’ll be years, before all 90 (60 ten-coach and 30 five coach) trains of the £1 billion order are in service.

Not least because they haven’t all been built yet, all 769 SWR main line drivers have to be trained and agreement with the RMT has yet to be reached.

Introducing new trains on Britain’s railways takes time.

See Geoff’s video about the Arterio here and read Diamond Geezer’s report here.

Roger French

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