Transport Insights

The Department for Transport’s press release celebrating a year since South Western Railway was nationalised highlights some genuine improvements, but the DfT can never resist spoiling a good story with exaggeration.

To celebrate the milestone, the Rail Minister Lord Peter Hendy unveiled a GBR-branded train – an Arterio operated by SWR at London Waterloo station.

He must have had a big veil.

I can tell it was a 701 as it says 701 on the front. But the main story is:

Thanks to public ownership, the government and SWR leadership sped up the introduction of new Arterio trains and accelerated driver training after years of delay, significantly boosting capacity and comfort for passengers across the network.

This crucial change resulted in 39 new trains entering service since May last year. As a result, the number of seats and space on board suburban services into London Waterloo has increased by 27%, with even greater increases on other routes

I think it is true that nationalisation cut through some of the ridiculous obstacles that delayed the introduction of the class 701 Arterios for years, but the DfT admits:

SWR is now on track to have 50 Arterios in service

The full fleet of 90 Arterio trains is expected to be in service by early 2027

So we are just about half way to something that should have happened by 2019. This and other things means that the DfT is quoting from very dodgy statistics.

The obvious point is that seats and space are very unlikely to increase by the same percentage.

My understanding is that Arterios are longer (more carriages) than the stock they have replaced but have fewer seats per carriage, resulting in a small seating increase. Because seats are smaller and crammed together more, the standing space increases by quite a lot.

But Arterios are mainly 3 seat + 2 seat combinations and the seats are a lot narrower as a result, meaning that when DFT Operator CEO Alex Hynes says:

The new Arterio trains are delivering greater capacity and comfort for SWR’s customers

it really isn’t true. Capacity and comfort are very clearly pulling in different directions.

And, as far as I can see, the 27% space increase only works if all trains on suburban services are now Arterio, which they are not.