Ex-Southern trains start to enter Southeastern service
The first of 13 trains moving from Southern to Southeastern have entered service on the last day of 2024.
A wider reshuffle of trains is taking place across south east England with 30 off-lease Class 379s formerly at Greater Anglia moving to Great Northern routes operated by GoVia Thameslink Railway.
In turn a number of trains are then moving to Southern which is also operated by GoVia Thameslink Railway, and in turn the 13 Class 377s are moving to Southeastern.
That will remove Networkers operating longer distance routes into Kent.
Things have progressed a bit slower than planned with a delay in Great Northern seeing their 30 trains start to enter service. They were formerly in use by Greater Anglia but then left off-lease for some time despite being just a decade old.
Throughout 2025 the cascades are set to take place though Southeastern have already ended the use of Networkers to Dover on Sundays. The first to move over to Southeastern as part of this programme remain in Southern colours with a Southeastern logo applied to the outside.
So why? wasn’t the stock cleared for the platforms? I remember the problems we had when bringing networkers in to replace the old epbs, as they were wider but there were certain things that couldn’t be moved, like that gas mains pipe in Greenwich college tunnel, so the endless weekends of engineering works to lower the track, but the first networker that went through, tore its roof and horns off as some idiot had misread his micro sheet and raised the track instead of lowering it. I left just before London bridge was redesigned and the shaft was built, but worked for BR for 20 years. Trains have always been reshuffled and re-used, there was an underground trailing saloon as third coach on the 455s as when i did my traction, i did 51s, 57s 63s and 455 because Basingstoke, (where i did my traction) also used 455s. Then there were the embarrassing tests with the regen brake where a four car networker wiped out one of the early channel tunnel trains, when they ran out from Waterloo mainline and down through Orpington, Sevenoaks, then on down to Ashford. Always been bodges and mishaps on the railway, likevwhen an Orpington man taking a Victoria train (but knowing the routes) was diverted through late running engineering works and they (BR), lost the train. It was found later as being on platform 14, “At Vic?”, came the question, “Nooooooo, at London Bridge.” Then came the big one, the passengers were o.k. but a bit lost, the train was o.k. the driver knew the routes, but “Was the stock cleared for London Bridge Central?” Sao without explanations of what the problems are, your notes are if little if no use at all.
So 13 Class 377s are to be transferred to Southeastern to add more extra capacity with Great Northern to start introducing the Class 379 Electrostars some time early this year and to keep the Class 387/3s. And the Class 379s to run from London King’s Cross to King’s Lynn, Peterborough, Cambridge and Ely routes.