More new trains, better journeys: SWR celebrates one year in public ownership

26 May 2026 11:55 AM

The roll-out of the South Western Arterio fleet shows how nationalisation of the railway is transforming passenger journeys.

• SWR gets 45th Arterio train for its first birthday in public ownership, with 39 additional new trains in service since renationalisation
• the trains are transforming passenger journeys, with better wifi, charging points at every seat and air conditioning – perfect for summer journeys
• under public ownership, SWR has sped up processes for new trains and driver training, which has boosted the number of seats and space on journeys into London Waterloo on suburban routes by 27%

Passengers travelling to London Waterloo from key commuter towns such as Windsor, Woking and Wimbledon are benefiting from increased capacity and more comfortable journeys one year after South Western Railway’s (SWR) services entered public ownership.

SWR was the first train operating company to enter public control under the Public Ownership Act last May, kick-starting the end of almost 30 years of fragmentation and waste under privatisation.

To celebrate the milestone, the Rail Minister Lord Peter Hendy unveiled a GBR-branded train – an Arterio operated by SWR at London Waterloo station on 22 May 2026.

Thanks to public ownership, the government and SWR leadership sped up the introduction of new Arterio trains and accelerated driver training after years of delay, significantly boosting capacity and comfort for passengers across the network.

This crucial change resulted in 39 new trains entering service since May last year. As a result, the number of seats and space on board suburban services into London Waterloo has increased by 27%, with even greater increases on other routes, including:

• Aldershot via Ascot (55%)
• Windsor (42%)
• Shepperton (32%)
• Dorking (30%)
• Hampton Court (28%)

SWR is now on track to have 50 Arterios in service, which can carry double the number of passengers than the trains they are replacing, have faster acceleration and braking speeds, free wifi, charging points and improved air conditioning – perfect for summer journeys.

Lord Peter Hendy, Rail Minister, yesterday said:

One year on from the first train operations entering public ownership, passengers are seeing and feeling the difference. Modern trains, more seats and greater capacity are restoring confidence in the railway and showing what can be achieved when we put passengers first rather than profit.

The rapid roll‑out of the South Western Railway Arterio fleet is a clear example of how nationalisation is cutting red tape that held the railway back for decades. These trains are transforming journeys for hundreds of thousands of people every day.

This milestone marks real progress towards a genuinely integrated railway under Great British Railways – a railway that’s improving and supporting economic growth, jobs and homes.

Lawrence Bowman, Managing Director, SWR and Network Rail Wessex, yesterday said:

We’re fast approaching the milestone of 50 Arterio diagrams in daily service, meaning most of our suburban customers are likely to catch an Arterio for their morning commute, with some of our key routes now exclusively served by the new trains.

Completing the rollout is a key step in our plans to improve our railway, which include a programme of major infrastructure upgrades, recruiting more traincrew, recovering quicker and keeping customers better informed during significant disruption and consulting on a full timetable refresh later this year.

Improving our railway will take time and we have a lot more to do, but we are making steady progress towards building a more reliable and resilient railway for the future.

Alex Hynes, CEO of DFTO, yesterday said:

Since entering public ownership, SWR has driven better and closer working with Network Rail.

By bringing track and train together, an empowered and united leadership team has been able to go further, making decisions that are right for their customers and communities.

The new Arterio trains are delivering greater capacity and comfort for SWR’s customers and completing the rollout will unlock more vital improvements.

The full fleet of 90 Arterio trains is expected to be in service by early 2027 and will also have real-time passenger information and fully accessible toilets. The train’s greater capacity reduces overcrowding and speeds up boarding, helping prevent the small delays that can accumulate throughout the day.

As well as introducing the Arterios, South Western is making other significant improvements for passengers:

• Fleet upgrades – a full overhaul of the Class 158 and 159 diesel fleet to improve reliability and upgrade the customer experience with at-seat power, improved information systems and new décor
• Better wifi – building on the recent introduction of superfast wifi and satellite technology to improve connectivity across the whole network
• Infrastructure improvements – completion of the £129 million resignalling programme between Farncombe and Petersfield to improve reliability, major renewal works at Queenstown Road to remove long-standing speed restrictions close to London Waterloo, and a £120 million signal replacement project in the Havant area
• Embracing technology – introducing thermal imaging cameras on trains to help with the early detection of track defects to minimise disruption and deploying drones to provide real-time updates to reduce the impact of trespass and safeguarding incidents
• More accessible journeys – building on 315,000 assisted journeys last year to progress accessibility schemes at ten stations to help ensure everyone can travel with confidence
• A timetable fit for the future – South Western will consult later this year on a full timetable refresh that makes best use of its network, new fleet and people, performs better for customers and stakeholders and is simpler to operate and more resilient when things go wrong
• Recruiting more train crew – recruiting and training 144 new drivers this year, with further expansion planned, to improve resilience and simplify our operating plan to help get customers moving again more quickly when significant incidents occur

As the government steams ahead with its bold rail reforms, passengers across Britain are already experiencing a better railway, with publicly owned DfT train operators performing better on punctuality and cancellations on average than those yet to come under DFTO ownership and frozen rail fares for the first time in 3 decades.

Other benefits of public ownership include:

• More services for passengers – 76,000 seats per week in the December timetable uplift, with 60,000 coming on LNER services on the East Coast Main Line, and over a million passenger journeys on Northern’s new Northumberland Line
• Strong performance – publicly owned c2c and Greater Anglia continue to be top-performing operators for punctuality and reliability, with over 90% of trains arriving within 3 minutes of their scheduled time and under 2% cancellations
• Greater flexibility – passengers can travel with greater confidence knowing that if their train is cancelled, they can use another publicly owned service 2 hours either side of their train to get to their destination at no extra cost

Since SWR, the department has successfully transferred c2c, Greater Anglia and WM Trains services into public ownership, with GTR joining the growing publicly owned family from 31 May 2026, while Chiltern and Great Western Railway will transfer later this year.

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