Coming in 2025: Southeastern Metro train refurbishment
Welcome to a series of posts looking at what we can expect to see next year in 2025. Hopefully this isn’t too much of a groundhog day exercise as when planning this it became pretty clear that most changes that were already supposed to happen this year or even before.
One such example can be seen today with a look at plans to refurbish all 36 of Southeastern’s 20-year-old Metro trains.
Back in 2022 a refurbishment was announced with an expectation that work would commence in 2023. That didn’t happen. In 2023 images were shared with work to start in 2024. No sign very much of anything has begun so far.
So perhaps work will start across the fleet in 2025. The trains are owned by Eversholt Rail and leased to Southeastern. Need for an agreement between leasing company, the Department for Transport and the rail company (though in this case the latter two are linked) can make train refurbs a convoluted process. Another benefit of the fragmented railway.
Ownership
Eversholt Rail by the way are owned by CK Hutchison, a Hong Kong–based and Cayman Islands–registered company.
Labour, in their plans for Great British Rail, do not propose bringing rail leasing back into government hands, including newly ordered stock.
According to the Office of Road and Rail, rolling stock companies paid dividends of £409.7m in 2022-23, up from £122.3m a year before with profit margins up from 14.3% to 41.6%.
If the name Hutchison sounds familiar you may have heard it from the vast Convoy’s Wharf site in Deptford where Boris Johnson approved 3,500-homes from Hutchison Whampoa. He called in that decision from Lewisham Council in his words to speed-up building. A decade later and not a single home has been built in a housing crises.
History
Class 376s were ordered by Connex and built by Bombardier at the end of their franchise and let’s just say spending big wasn’t on the agenda. They famously were the last trains ever ordered in the UK without air conditioning.
One reason given was that a Metro service with frequent stops meant benefits of air-conditioning couldn’t be realised. That ignored air-conditioned trains and public transport operating all around the world at the time including metro services.
By the time of entering service Connex had been kicked out and a state-owned operator was in place. Then Southeastern were re-privatised by New Labour with the franchise awarded to GoVia (with then then-government enforcing annual fares rises of RPI inflation + three per cent every year on passengers – public transport friendly it was not) and gradual declines of the interior condition of all Metro stock would run for the next 15+ years, which also applied to Networkers.
Following that franchise award the coalition and Conservative government continuously awarded short-term extensions to GoVia with no investment in the Class 376s. Then GoVia saw their contract cease without renewal three years ago after financial malpractice and it was back to being government-owned.
Minor change
Now twenty years after entering service they’re pretty shabby. Sadly the refurb – when it happens – will not include any toilets or air-con despite the basic bodyshell being from the Electrostar platform of which every other type (and there’s thousands of carriages operating with numerous rail companies) including air-conditioning.
It’s mostly a case of new paint and fabric on seats. Nice enough but no great shakes when it’s hot out and the things are like a furnace.
It seems short sited to not add air con or even toilets given a typical 35-40 year lifespan of electric multiple units such as this type of stock. That means twenty years of service left.
But like so much else with these trains and wider rolling stock policy in the UK, short term savings and keeping spend off the public finances end up costing more over the long term hitting passengers and taxpayers both in terms of finances and decent travelling conditions.
So while there’s no air con or toilets set to be added you will see inflation-busting fare rises in 2025 enforced by the new government, and all while petrol duty is frozen.
I think it’s a good idea to refurbish the entire Class 376 fleet. Since they were built by Bombardier (now Alstom) in 2004-2005. Plus they should have been nicknamed “Metrostar”.
I think it’s time that Southeastern and Alstom should refurbish the 36 Class 376 suburban Electrostar since Southeastern have inherited the Class 707 “City Beam” from South Western Railway. The Class 376 should have been nicknamed as “Metrostar”. Since they were built in 2004-2005.
A few years ago, I asked about toilets (disabled accessible) to the then class 313, which I was told this could be done at the works at circa ten thousand pounds, per loo(including the, containment tank under the train)…we’ve had a bit of inflation since, but I don’t understand why they couldn’t be added to these sets, maybe just one at one end. The Networkers toilets, even on the two car sets. The argument was every station, which these 376’s servered had at station toilets, but it was limited opening that was the problem, Blackheath was on the opposite platform of my arrivals.