£1bn train fleet 'in storage for years after drivers complained that the windscreen wipers were too big'

3 October 2024, 11:09

A fleet of trains worth £1 billion has sat in storage for years after the union Aslef claimed that wipers blocked drivers' views.

The 90 Arterio trains were planned to be used for South Western Railway services (SWR) but Aslef felt that the size of the wipers blocked the drivers' view. This was despite the fact that the Arterio trains have some of the biggest windscreens of any UK train.

Now, according to the Telegraph, the complaint has been dropped as part of a deal with Transport Secretary Louise Haigh for a 15 per cent pay rise for drivers.

However, only two out of the 90 trains bought by SWR are currently travelling from London Waterloo, despite the goal to have them all operational by 2020.

An SWR spokesperson said: 'As is well documented, introducing the Arterios has been a major and complex project, introducing both a new fleet and method of operation, while facing extensive production and software issues and all against a backdrop of Covid and industry recovery.'

The models, which were hoped to replace the 40-year-old British Rail trains, have been plagued with issues from difficulty opening the cab doors to problems with the couplers which are used to connect the trains together.

SWR now hopes to have ten of the new Arterio trains running within the next four months.

The SWR spokesperson said: “Our first train entered customer service earlier this year and, following good progress on training colleagues and the trains performing well, we are now expanding the phased rollout of the 90-strong fleet, as evidenced by the new service to Shepperton this week.

"This is an important milestone on the Arterio programme and another step toward the full rollout of the fleet of 90 Arterio trains that are set to transform capacity and comfort on SWR’s suburban network.

“We’re looking forward to introducing more Arterio services and will be sharing the wider rollout plan in due course.”