Southeastern Class 376 trains debranded in advance of refurbishment
Southeastern’s fleet of 20 years old Class 376 trains are losing their branding in advance of an upcoming refurbishment and new colour scheme.
After some years of waiting the trains will see a new blue exterior along the lines of their “City Beam” Class 707 stock obtained from South Western Railway.
Interior changes will see new seats coverings but it’s very much a light-touch programme. No air con unlike every other Electorstar train (and these things are roasting in summer as the windows are next to useless) plus no toilets.
The current colour scheme both inside and out are rather odd as trains were ordered by Connex and yet by the time they arrived they had been booted out and renationalised. Connex branding and colours by then was defunct.
Privatised
That period of state control didn’t last long before New Labour reprivatised the network and enforced above inflation fare rises of RPI+ 3 per cent a year as part of the new franchise under Govia.
Yep, Labour have a long record of anti-public transport measures as we’ve seen again this week with fare rises of 4.6 per cent – which is currently almost double the rate of inflation. Meanwhile fuel duty was frozen in Rachel Reeves’ budget.
And as often needs reiterating, under the private rail network government always set fare levels and much else. The franchises were handy whipping boys for government decisions.
Now there’s a basic refurbishment coming up. Could the new Labour government do more? Yes. Are they? No. It’s scarcely any different to Tory control when constant short-term extensions were given until Govia were found to have, shall we say, interesting financial reporting.
That behavior of course saw little repercussion as they’ve subsequently won other rail contracts.
These makeovers are as far as Southeastern will go now that they have completed the acquisition of Southwestern’s cast off rolling stock.
So as part of the refurbishment and upgrade of the Class 376. The Class 376 will remain as they currently are but not to have toilets fitted and the hopper windows to remain apart from having improved seating.
As the Class 707 City Beam are fully air-conditioned and they were built in 2017 and were previously used on South Western Railway suburban lines. And it’s been confirmed that toilets will be installed onto the Class 707.
It would make sense if the Class 376 were to be upgraded with air-conditioning and to replace the windows. And to have toilets fitted as the Class 707 City Beam are to have toilets fitted and are already air-conditioned since they were cascaded from South Western Railway.