[AMcWhirter]

Before the pandemic we published an article about the many new trains being delivered to UK rail’s TOCs (train operating company).

But, along with the many orders, there has been money wasted.

Recently Mark reported on TPE. This government-managed TOC has just withdrawn from service, for one reason or another, its small fleet of class 68 locos and rolling stock.

Yes I know it’s only a small fleet but these trains are only a few years old from new !

Right now they are languishing unused in an isolated railway depot.

The same Business Traveller article featured the new Arterio trains for South Western.

TBH I had forgotten about these trains … I thought they were already in service.

But today it’s revealed that the first one entered service with South Western *four years late* and, initially will be deployed on just one service on one route on four days a week. Let’s hope they have no reliability issues.

Paul Clifton BBC posted the X/tweet below.

We’re off. More than four years late, here is the first passenger-carrying @SW_Help Class 701 Arterio. A once-a-day, one-route service for four days only to Windsor pic.twitter.com/HtgnEGfvsW

— Paul Clifton (@PaulCliftonBBC) January 9, 2024

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