{"id":313058,"date":"2025-11-07T20:55:38","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T10:55:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/railuk.com\/?p=185096"},"modified":"2025-11-07T20:55:38","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T10:55:38","slug":"swr-to-stage-farewell-tour-for-iconic-commuter-trains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=313058","title":{"rendered":"SWR to stage \u2018farewell tour\u2019 for iconic commuter trains"},"content":{"rendered":"

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South Western Railway (SWR) is staging a farewell tour for its Class 455 trains on Sunday 21 December.<\/p>\n

SWR\u2019s fleet of red trains, which transport customers from the likes of Guildford, Twickenham, and Windsor to London Waterloo, will be retired by the end of the year. SWR\u2019s new fleet of Arterio trains is being rolled out and will soon operate all its suburban network services.<\/p>\n

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Arterio and Class 455 at London Waterloo. Credit: SWR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

In recognition of their role in the lives of millions of customers, their popularity with rail enthusiasts, and to mark the end of an era on the British railway network, SWR and the Branch Line Society will run a special charter service.<\/p>\n

The \u2018Class 455 Farewell\u2019 tour will include some familiar places on the suburban network, such as Epsom and Kingston, along with a few special routes and locations, such as the District Line\u2019s branch between East Putney and Wimbledon, plus Haslemere on the Portsmouth Direct Line.<\/p>\n

Just 400 tickets will go on sale from the Branch Line Society\u2019s website at 11am on Monday 10 November. The profits will go to three charities, The Alex Wardle Foundation, Macmillan, and The Railway Children.<\/p>\n

Neil Drury, South Western Railway\u2019s engineering and infrastructure director, said: \u201cWhile customers are getting used to the many benefits of our new fleet of Arterio trains, we know there are a lot of enthusiasts out there who will be sad to see our classic red trains go.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe farewell tour will be a fitting tribute to these trains, which have been a staple of our railway and worked incredibly hard for more than four decades. Best of all, the proceeds will go to three specially selected charities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe look forward to welcoming ticket holders on board on Sunday 21 December.\u201d<\/p>\n

A familiar sight for millions of commuters in South West London, Berkshire and Surrey, 70 Class 455 trains were built for what is now the SWR network by British Rail Engineering Limited, between 1982 and 1985. They entered service on SWR\u2019s suburban routes on Monday 28 March 1983.<\/p>\n

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90 Arterio trains will replace the Class 455 fleet and are currently operating more than 300 services per day, with more joining in the coming weeks and months to transform journeys on SWR\u2019s suburban network.<\/p>\n

The brand new, 10-car trains will serve 98 stations in and around South West London, and each will carry over 50% more customers than the Class 455s, significantly increasing capacity for customers.<\/p>\n

The \u00a31 billion fleet will also improve customer comfort, providing modern features including Wi-Fi, charging points at every seat, real time information, accessible toilets and air conditioning.<\/p>\n

Image credit: Jeremy Chapter<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>South Western Railway (SWR) is staging a farewell tour for its Class 455 trains on Sunday 21 December. SWR\u2019s fleet of red trains, which transport customers from the likes of Guildford, Twickenham, and Windsor to London Waterloo, will be retired by the end of the year. SWR\u2019s new fleet of Arterio trains is being rolled [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,180,16016,85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-313058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rail-news","category-rolling-stock","category-train-operating-companies","category-uk"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=313058"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":313059,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313058\/revisions\/313059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=313058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=313058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=313058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}