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Date: 2026-03-03 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00029247

THE UK RAIL SYSTEM WEYBRIDGE TO WATERLOO ... Superalbs Travels ... August 2024 London’s BRAND-NEW commuter train has one big problem… Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIYaF9RQ2zY
London’s BRAND-NEW commuter train has one big problem… Superalbs Travels Aug 28, 2024 138K subscribers ... 260,252 views ... 5K likes This is the UK's newest commuter train... sort of! I'm riding the SWR Class 458/4, a recent addition to the South Western Railway fleet, dating back to the days of South West Trains. Travelling from Weybridge to London Waterloo through the busy train station of Clapham Junction, I'll be checking out this Class 458 refurbishment, and discussing the uncertain future of the Class 458 Juniper. Journey Details: Origin: Weybridge Destination: London Waterloo Company: South Western Railway Train: UK Class 458/4 (Coradia Juniper) Accommodation: Standard Class Seat (2nd) Distance: 30 miles / 48 kilometres Price: £8.55 (€10.10 / $10.80) Time: 1 hour 23 minutes, arrived 3 minutes early Find me elsewhere: https://superalbs.weebly.com/ ... / superalbs / superalbstravels / superalbstravels This Superalbs Travels video documents a journey on a recently refurbished SWR Class 458/4 commuter train. The ride from Weybridge to London Waterloo explores the train's interior and history, revealing surprising details about its refurbishment. A 30-mile trip also highlights various stations and the busy Clapham Junction. Peter Burgess COMMENTARY I am archiving this video in December 2025. The origin date of this journey was Peter Burgess Transcript 0:00 London's railways are known as the BEST in the UK, with the most modern trains and a frequent service. And today, I'm trying out the capital's NEWEST train, this is the South Western Railway Class 458/4. But this train has a big secret, it's actually twenty-five years old, and despite having a modern interior, it's actually DISGUSTING! So join me for a ride into the capital city, as I show you what it's like on these recently introduced trains. Hello and welcome back to another video, today I'm here in Weybridge, Surrey, not far from London, and I'm going to be catching the capital's NEWEST commuter train... sort of! I'll be riding with South Western Railway on one of their Class 458/4 units over to London Waterloo. Looking forward to this journey - let's go! Hello from Weybridge, one of about 90 stations on South Western Railway's London commuter network. The station is situated on the busy South West Main Line, one of the UK's busiest railways, with barely a few minutes between each passing train. 1:03 Now this station is pretty basic, but let's head inside for a look around. Here you'll find a staffed ticket office, and that's about it really. If this is closed, then you can find a row of ticket machines just outside. Departures are displayed just above the ticket barriers. I'm travelling on the 17:03 to London Waterloo, instead advertised as terminating at Barnes. It's a simple station for regular commuter traffic. The facilities are limited, as no long-distance trains depart from here. As we've got a while until my ride on this exciting new train, let's head down to the platforms to wait. Weybridge is a minor station, with most services passing through on the central pair of tracks. Connecting the two outer platforms is this footbridge, which nowadays has been retrofitted with lifts to aid accessibility. All services through here are operated by South Western Railway, a cooperation 2:03 between the British FirstGroup, and Mass Transit Railway (or MTR) from Hong Kong. The passing trains operate from London to destinations such as Southampton, Portsmouth, and Weymouth. Some trains even run from as far away as Exeter in Devon. You may notice that most of these trains run on electricity, despite a lack of overhead wires. Well, this is down to the third rail system, which as the name implies, uses an additional 'live' rail to get power to the train. Similar systems exist in Germany and the USA, but not on such a large scale. The London-bound platform also features a takeaway coffee shop...and there's a pretty decent waiting room here too, featuring children's art, and a collection of books. But eventually, my train arrives at Platform 1. 3:02 This is an SWR Class 458, a long-term member of the fleet, though this example has been very recently refurbished. There's a lot of good things to say about this refurbishment, BUT also some huge disappointments that we'll get to a little later on. The train is outshopped in South Western Railway's new livery, a combination of navy blue and grey. I'm not normally a fan of this dull colour scheme, but I think it really suits these new trains. What do you think? Let me know in the comments! This train type has a long and complex history that I'm looking forward to sharing with you. But that will have to wait, as I need to get on-board. Seating is in a 2+2 layout throughout, with a few tables per carriage. All seats are basically the same, so I'll sit here for now. 4:02 Today's route will see us first heading away from London, before looping back around through Staines and Hounslow while stopping at many stations on our way to Waterloo. Journey time is scheduled to be one hour and 23 minutes, covering 30 miles, or about 48 kilometres. Departure from Weybridge is on-time, as we pull out of the station at 17:03. Passing us now is a train heading to London Waterloo on the direct route via Surbiton, but our train quickly leaves the mainline for the Chertsey Loop line. It's currently approaching rush-hour, and this train will get very busy later on. So let's take a look around the brand-new interior while I've got the place to myself. Seats on British trains are often particularly uncomfortable, so I was keen to see what these would be like. I must admit, I was very surprised to find that these seats were actually well padded. The back was firmer, but this resulted in an ergonomic design, and a comfortable seat overall. 5:04 There was also an ever-so-slightly winged leather headrest. Between seats, there's a folding armrest. This was narrow and pretty hard, though. The seat in front features a seatback table, and this was well-sized. You'll also find a groove for holding a drink. One of the best things about this train has to be the legroom. There's so much room to stretch out and relax here, even for a long journey. One of our first station stops is in Virginia Water. This is a junction station, with the London Waterloo to Reading line diverging from here. We actually spend quite some time in Virginia Water. At first I thought there was some sort of problem with the train or something, but it turns out we were just waiting for a higher priority service to pass. And as we're now back on the move, let's dive into these trains' strange history. 6:01 Our story goes back to 1998, with South West Trains ordering 30x four car trains from Alstom to replace the incredibly dated yet charismatic slam-door units. However, these trains were extremely unreliable, with the operator announcing that they wish to withdraw the fleet after just five years... And this is where it gets complicated. South West Trains withdrew the older Class 442, sending them to Southern in exchange for the Class 460 fleet. These trains were then merged into the existing fleet, resulting in a total of 36x five car units. The new Class 458 was extremely reliable, even breaking national records! But this soon changed when FirstGroup and MTR took charge of the railway, bringing back the Class 442, and removing the Class 458s. However, for an unknown reason, the Class 442 plan was cancelled, resulting in the Class 458s being called back in to replace them. 7:01 It really is a bit of a mess, and speaking of, we're now pulling into Staines. Staines is only a few minutes' drive from London Heathrow airport, making it a popular interchange for airport-bound traffic. You can also catch a train to the historic town of Windsor, a place with close ties to the British royal family. So far, this interior is pretty good! But it has some major problems, let's go and take a look. Each end of the train has a small First Class area, and this featured something pretty disgusting! For one, these seats weren't actually properly attached. And is that... mould growing on the walls!? YUCK! This is totally unacceptable for a train that has been in service for just 5 days. But this wasn't all, one of the train's two toilets was broken for the entire trip! Luckily, the wheelchair accessible toilet was still working, though this was also pretty poor. 8:06 The soap was working fine, and this was hard to use with just one hand available! The water was also okay, and a hand dryer was provided too. However, this toilet was in a very poor condition, with lots of vandalism, wear and tear, and even parts just rotting away. And just next to this were the train's two wheelchair spaces. Back outside, we've just come into Feltham station, now within the boundaries of Greater London. At this station, the train's doors managed to fail. Luckily though, a swift kick was able to fix it this time. After Feltham, we take a sharp left, heading towards the Hounslow Loop. This is another one of South Western Railway's commuter lines. 9:01 And indeed, the next station is Hounslow itself. The district is twinned with the city of Lahore in Pakistan. Safe to say that the railway service of these two places couldn't really be any more different! As we get closer to central London, the train gets busier. Our route to London Waterloo passes under the main approach of London Heathrow. This plane is just arriving from Shanghai in China... wouldn't that be an interesting place to visit! Between each seat, you'll find a single three-pin power socket, alongside two USB sockets. Up above, there's an average sized overhead luggage rack. More luggage space can be found down here, in the space beneath the seat. This train did have free WiFi, though I didn't use it on this journey, instead opting to enjoy the beautiful West London scenery, such as this junction in Barnes. How exciting! 10:03 So what does the future of these trains hold? Well, originally they were meant to be operating on London to Portsmouth duties, however, nobody really knows if this will be happening now. And the language used in the official press release suggests they will run on commuter routes for a few years, before being withdrawn. Eventually, these tall buildings in the background signify we are getting close to the centre of London... But first we call at Clapham Junction. This is the busiest station in the UK, with over 120 trains per hour in peak times, across its 17 platforms. The station also sees services from Govia Thameslink Railway, and London Overground, so there really are a lot of destinations you can access from here! Our last part of the journey to London Waterloo has to be one of my all-time favourite approaches to a city ever. Winding between skyscrapers full of overpriced 11:01 apartments and office blocks is an epic sight, and for me, it never gets old. Now on to how much this journey costs. For this trip, a one-way flexible ticket costs £8.55, including my Railcard discount of one third. This is pretty expensive, but return tickets offer better value, and the more direct route via Surbiton is about 25% cheaper still. We arrive into the old Waterloo International platforms. Many years ago, these platforms would see Eurostar trains departing for Paris and Brussels, but now it's just the South Western Railway commuter trains. Arrival is three minutes early at 18:23. Overall, I really like the new Class 458/4 interior, and I think it would be a great fit 12:02 for longer journeys. But the mould on the walls and the general poor condition of these trains after a refurbishment is unacceptable, and I really hope to see this improved - urgently! As always, thanks for watching, and if you want to see my video on the brand-new Intercity train that Britain abandoned then be sure to click up here now.

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