FirstGroup boosts its Waterloo trains with £895m British deal

New trains made in Britain will be introduced on South West Trains’ suburban commuter lines from mid-2019, in a post-Brexit £895 million boost to Derby manufacturer Bombardier.

FirstGroup and MTR, which take over the running of South West Trains in August, have picked Bombardier Transportation to supply 90 trains which will increase capacity by 46% into Waterloo, on peak services.

But the arrival of the trains means 150 carriages, worth £200 million, ordered from Siemens by previous operator Stagecoach will be dumped.

FirstGroup said it expected another rail operator will be able to use the trains elsewhere.

The longer Bombardier trains are thought to be cheaper than Siemens’ and the operator wants to run a single type of train across its network, because it leads to lower costs.

The new Bombardier trains, on the Windsor, Reading and west London suburban routes, will have five and 10-carriage formations with air-conditioning, wi-fi, plugs at seats and wide gangways.