Commuters hoping for a long-overdue upgrade to South Western Railway’s (SWR) outdated fleet have been dealt another blow, with the £1 billion Arterio trains now delayed until at least 2027 due to an ongoing union dispute over who gets to close the train doors.
As Putney.news previously reported in March, the sleek new trains have been sitting idle for months despite finally arriving on SWR’s network. At the time, the issue was a lack of trained drivers. Now, it’s emerged that a long-running dispute between the train operators and unions has thrown yet another spanner in the works.
The latest hold-up centres on the Driver-Operated Doors (DOD) system, which allows drivers to control both opening and closing the train doors—a feature that unions argue could make guards obsolete. The RMT and ASLEF unions insist that guards must be responsible for closing the doors, claiming drivers cannot always safely see the entire platform at some of SWR’s more awkwardly designed stations.
Although a compromise has been reached—drivers will open the doors, and guards will close them—the delay to driver training and station infrastructure upgrades means the full rollout of the 90-strong Arterio fleet could be another two years away. Jeremy Varns, spokesperson for passenger watchdog SWR Watch, is not impressed and told The Telegraph:
“Travellers will continue to be crammed into overcrowded carriages, in many cases this will be on rolling stock that’s over 40 years old. If we’re expected to use 40-year-old trains, perhaps ticket prices should revert back to those from the 1980s?”
The irony isn’t lost on local commuters in Putney and Roehampton, who have endured years of delays, cancellations, and sweltering summer journeys on ancient trains without air-conditioning or even plug sockets. Some of SWR’s current rolling stock dates back to the British Rail era, with one 40-year-old unit even given a nostalgic paint job last year to celebrate its age.
The timing is particularly awkward for SWR, with the government set to take over the franchise in May as part of Labour’s flagship rail nationalisation policy. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander is reportedly summoning SWR’s corporate owners, First Group and MTR, to a meeting next week over the delays—though there’s little they can do with just weeks left before control shifts to the Department for Transport.
An SWR spokesperson confirmed the company still intends for drivers to control doors in the future but acknowledged the rollout is taking longer than planned due to the need for infrastructure upgrades and further driver training. A spokesperson said:
“Many of the 98 stations on the Arterio route were built more than 150 years ago. We’re working to improve visibility and safety so drivers can make a safe departure decision using onboard CCTV.”
Public reaction to the delays has been fierce with online commenters expressing overwhelming frustration with unions, many accusing them of resisting technological progress and prioritising job protection over public service. One commenter summed up the prevailing sentiment: “Technology moves on, jobs become redundant, get with it! If it was down to the unions I guess there would still be a fireman in the driver’s cab.”
For now, passengers across South West London—including those served by Putney, Barnes, and Earlsfield stations—will have to keep waiting for the Arterio era to truly begin. And while the trains may be state-of-the-art, the saga around their rollout feels distinctly stuck in the past.
New management needed