SWT struggles with reliability - Shocker!

This from South West Trains...

PASSENGERS TO BENEFIT FROM £40 MILLION INVESTMENT IN SOUTH WEST TRAINS CLASS 455 FLEET

• Further improvements to country's most reliable train fleet
• 91 Class 455 trains to be fitted with modern traction equipment to help reliability
• Lighter trains will require less maintenance and reduce wear on rail infrastructure
• Regenerative braking will return up to 20% of energy for use by other trains

Passengers using South West Trains are to benefit from a newly-launched £40 million upgrade of its Class 455 train fleet, which is already the most reliable in the UK.

The upgrade will deliver even greater reliability for services which operate on the Metro area from London Waterloo to Reading, the Hounslow loop and the Shepperton branch.

The 91 Class 455 trains, which are already the most reliable trains in the country, will be fitted with new traction equipment which promises to enhance performance and improve reliability even further.

The programme – which will be rolled out over the next three years – involves removing the existing DC traction equipment, including the motors, and replacing it with an even more reliable modern AC traction system.

Christian Roth, Engineering Director for the South West Trains – Network Rail Alliance, said: “Our Class 455 trains are already by far the most reliable fleet in the country, however we are not complacent and we want to make sure these excellent results are sustained and improved even further.

“The new traction motors will help us to improve the reliability of these trains for our passengers at the same time as delivering environmental benefits through the reduced electricity supply.”

The prototype train will be fitted at Wimbledon depot with the remainder of the fleet fitted at Eastleigh depot. The project should be finished by Spring 2014.

The investment is being delivered in partnership with the South West Trains-Network Rail Alliance, Porterbrook and the Department for Transport.

Ends

Eye wonders why this SWT release made so little of the Class 455's reliability?

UPDATE: This from the The Grim Reaper...

It seems that SWT don't know their own train fleet:

Class 458s are the UK's most reliable trains

And Class 455s don't generally operate to Hounslow or Reading (450 / 458 respectively).
 
So the press release isn't that reliable.

Fleet reliability will be key for IEP

This from Ithuriel...

With DfT highlighting the importance of reliability in the IEP contract announcement, here is a list of today's Top 10 most reliable fleets on the national network.

(With thanks to an irate 'Captain of the Golden Spanners' for correcting the earlier version - so this with added Ford Imprimatur!) 
 

Ranking	Operator	Fleet	Maker	Miles per 3 min delay
1	South West Trains	Class 458	Alstom	105,761
2	South West Trains	Class 159/0	BREL	82,053
3	London Midland	Class 350/2	Siemens	75,315
4	South West Trains	Class 159/1	BREL	70,240
5	South West Trains	Class 158	BREL	62,932
6	London  Midland	Class 350/1	Siemens	58,652
7	South West Trains	Class 444	Siemens	51,369
8	South West Trains	Class 455	BREL/GEC	40,710
9	Cross Country	Class 220	Bombardier	38,463
10	c2c	Class 357	Bombardier	37,840

Eye congratulates all the above manufacturers.

UPDATE: This from Button Moon...

I was just wondering if any of your esteemed readers could extend the table of manufacturers’ performance to include Messrs. Hitachi, who already have a fleet of trains operating in the South East? 

(Sadly, in the interest of fairness, Eye is unwilling to extend the range of the above table to include lesser performing fleets as Bombardier and Siemens have had quite enough free publicity for the reliability of their rolling stock already. Ed)

UPDATE: This from Deep Purple...

Further to the top ten table, the ‘Owner’ column appears to have been omitted.

This is at least as important as the ‘Maker’ and would make interesting reading, 7 of the top 10 and all 5 of the top 5 being Porterbrook fleets.

Derby may not build trains like it used to but Derby can certainly manage these assets better than the rest.