Southeastern completes £30 million revamp, benefitting 625,000 daily passengers

Southeastern has completed its £30 million joint venture with Eversholt Rail and Bombardier to upgrade a third of its trains, with the Class 375 fleet approaching its 15th year of operation.

Each train required three weeks of work by 35 dedicated employees at Bombardier’s site in Derby to successfully update and enhance the vehicles; improving the passengers’ journey experience.

As part of the revamp, 83,000 seat covers were dry cleaned, 20,500 litres of paint applied and seven miles of carpet were replaced. Southeastern has released a specially shot time lapse video, to illustrate the size of the project.

David Statham, Managing Director of Southeastern, said: “Our 625,000 daily passengers deserve the highest levels of comfort and that’s why our trains have been renovated. We are very proud of our teams who have worked incredibly hard over the past three years to ensure trains have been refurbished to the highest standards.”

The train carriages are cleaned every night, but the refresh programme has set a new benchmark for comfort and cleanliness. By the end of 2018, all of Southeastern’s trains will have received a full deep-clean by new service providers, Servest.

The revamping of trains and stations is just one example of Southeastern’s franchise commitments of more than £78 million to improve the experience of passengers travelling across their network.