Southeastern Networkers head to the scrapyard

Two former Southeastern Networker trains have travelled from a storage siding to the scrapyard today.

The 466s dating from the early 1990s were dragged from Ely to Newport to be cut up marking the end of decades of service in south east London and Kent.

It’s coming up to four years since the first were withdrawn from service and stored. Since then some have sat at Ely sidings near Cambridge with one sold to a company in Great Yarmouth.

Another has sat beside Doncaster station for some time.

The Class 466 version of the Networker was two coaches in length and often enabled six or ten-car trains. On occasion two were in service together with the four-car Class 465 variant.

Stock begun to be withdrawn as Class 707s came over from South Western Railway and a total of 30 of those are now in service.

Despite the arrival of 30 Class 707 “City Beam” trains and 36 Class 376 trains that arrived in the mid 2000s, the Networkers remain the mainstay of the Metro fleet.

Of 43 Class 466s a total of 30 are still in service. Out of 147 Class 465s, a total of 121 are still in service.

A tender was issued in November 2023 for possible replacement but no award has yet been made. Meanwhile one has been painted back into its original Network Southeast livery and is expected to be fully unveiled soon.

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