Southeastern HS1 train fleet upgrade sees first stage complete

A £27 million upgrade of Southeastern’s fleet on HS1 trains has reached the milestone with completion of phase one.

The 29-strong fleet of Class 395 trains were first introduced 16 years ago. Work included on phase one saw trains fitted with new carpets, new seats, energy-efficient LED lighting and at-seat USB charge points.

Most trains see a comprehensive refurb around mid-life which is generally about 20 years so this is a tad early – though given the fares on HS1 passengers should expect a top notch internal environment.

Built by Hitachi, Class 395s are the fastest domestic trains in Britain topping out at 140 mph in service.

Whilst long distance trains see upgrades Southeastern are unusual in that their biggest fleet in London and the suburbs (the Networker) never saw a major upgrade in it’s now 30+ year lifespan, in contrast to the Class 455s at South Western Railway and the Class 455s at Southern.

A tender has been initiated for Networker replacement but no decision yet announced.

However Southeastern’s Class 376 are seeing an upgrade programme with a new external colour scheme and the installation of toilets. Sadly they really could do with air con but that’s no happening. They’re often sweatboxes and the windows next to useless for providing airflow unlike those in Networkers.

When it comes to other suburban operators in the capital SWR are to see off all their Class 455 when the new Class 701 Arterios finally all enter service while Southern scrapped all their Class 455 shortly after covid under government pressure for cuts. However a cascade programme is currently underway which see a net addition of around 13 trains.

Fleet size

There’s long been calls to increase the size of the overall fleet of the HS1 fleet from 29 given some services operate at half length of six carriages. Before 2020 the issue was coming to the fore but the respite seen by covid helped lower passenger numbers.

Those high fares were helping to suppress demand – though that pushes some onto alternative train services increasing crowding elsewhere. See along north Kent as an example.

While serving different markets it’s also telling how HS1 struggled to recover at stations such as Stratford International. The DLR station saw passenger numbers in 2023 already back above 2019 levels from 3.9m to 4.4m.

The HS1 station was still behind at 2.5m in 2024 against 2.9m in 2019. Stratford International is in the middle of housing growth and HS1 services are just seven minutes from St Pancras.

Yet a rapid increase would impact longer distance passengers and given the squeezed nature of the fleet that’s not something that’s necessarily to be encouraged, hence very high fares.

So high fares suits those in government as rising demand would see a need for more trains and does the Treasury – who call the shots – want to be supporting that?

Eventually though they may be forced into it. Stratford sees no sign of development abating whilst attractions near the station grow with the upcoming opening of a new V&A museum to join the Olympic stadium, Westfield shopping centre and much else while work on the first 2,100 homes directly around Ebbsfleet station finally shows signs of life after twenty years.