British Rail Class 442

Class 442 at Weymouth in September 1992

The first unit was handed over to Network SouthEast on 18 December 1987.[7][8] The units were initially used solely on the Weymouth line, but through the 1990s began to be used on the London Waterloo to Portsmouth Direct Line. The increased top speed of the Class 442, combined with timetable changes, resulted in some minor journey time improvements, for example a non-stop service reaching Southampton Airport Parkway from London Waterloo in 58 minutes, over a journey of around 74 miles (119 km).[9]

442407 at Moreton in April 2006

As part of the privatisation of British Rail, the 442 class were sold to Angel Trains and leased to South West Trains.[10] Unit 442402 soon had an orange stripe added to its Network SouthEast livery, which looked very similar to Stagecoach's corporate image. From 1998, the units began to receive the new South West Trains livery of white, red and blue as they underwent overhaul at Crewe Works. Unit 442404 was the first to be so treated.[11]

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the fleet continued to operate express services from London to both Weymouth and Portsmouth. However, in 2004, when the Class 444s entered service, the 442s were again used solely on the Weymouth line. In early 2006, the fleet began to receive overhauls, with units emerging in a slightly revised livery which conformed with the Disability Discrimination Act. By January 2007 14 of the 24 units had received overhauls.

Despite their recent overhauls, South West Trains withdrew the entire fleet in 2007. They were replaced by Class 444s, augmented by Class 450s, spare from the re-introduction of Class 458s.

The last Class 442 Weymouth to London Waterloo operation was on 24 January 2007 with the final service on 3 February 2007. The units were moved from Bournemouth Traincare Depot to Eastleigh Works for warm storage.[12]

442414 in Gatwick Express livery at Battersea Park in June 2009

Southern leased 17 to operate the extended Gatwick Express service which began in December 2008. Originally. some units were kept out of service for spare parts.[13][14] In October 2008. unit 442414 became the first unit to be fully refurbished inside and out.[15]

The new extended Gatwick Express service was introduced on 15 December 2008.[16] The new service, operating Monday to Friday, comprised six services in the morning from Brighton and six services to Brighton in the evening with an additional service terminating at Haywards Heath.

In addition. some peak-hour services to/from London Bridge to Brighton and Eastbourne were operated by pairs of Class 442s. In April 2009. Southern took an extra two units from Eastleigh Works to make up for the shortfall in units caused by their use on other services.

When Govia retained the Southern franchise, it was announced that the remaining off-lease 442s would return to service after an overhaul to replace Class 460s. In 2012. the branding on the units was modified to read simply 'Express' rather than 'Gatwick Express' to avoid passenger confusion when used on fast Brighton Main Line services that do not call at Gatwick.

Govia ordered 108 Class 387/2 carriages for the Brighton and Gatwick Express routes. The 387s began to enter service on 29 February 2016, with the Class 442s phased out by the end of 2016, with the exception of the Brighton and Eastbourne peak-time commuter services, which continued to be operated by a pair of 442s until March 2017.[17][18][19][20]

The last passenger service was on 10 March 2017 which was the 17:57 London Bridge to Brighton formed of units 442410 and 442413.[21] A railtour ran on 12 March 2017 by units 442402 and 442408 commemorate the final send off to entire fleet from services on the Brighton Main Line.[22] All were taken to Ely for storage.[23]

442403 approaching Eastleigh in June 2019

In March 2017, South Western Railway (SWR) was awarded the South Western franchise, announcing plans to refurbish and enter 18 Class 442s into service for use on London Waterloo to Portsmouth services.[24][25]

SWR awarded Kiepe Electric a contract to undertake the £45m refurbishment. Work will include replacing the life-expired DC traction equipment (which was salvaged from older trains built during the 1960s) with an AC package incorporating IGBT technology from Kiepe Electric Düsseldorf. New brake controls from Knorr-Bremse Rail Vehicle Systems will permit regenerative braking.[26]

Delays led to the first services of refurbished units due to begin in May 2019, however problems with the door locks[27] saw the units temporarily removed from service again until June 2019 for the fault to be rectified.[28]

The same limited service continued until 2 September 2019 where they were withdrawn from service due to the fears that the units were wrongly turning signals to danger as the train approached them. It was thought to be around the Earlsfield area that they were doing this which caused delays on the busy section of track they operated on.[5][29] The withdrawal of the units continued until the issue was resolved and testing of the units was undertook, allowing the class to re-enter service on 6 January 2020 beginning on the London Waterloo to Portsmouth route this time.[30]

The Department for Transport gave bidders for the TransPennine Express franchise the option of using Class 442s,[31] however the winning bidder did not take up the option.[32]

In November 2016, Alliance Rail Holdings announced plans to use the 442s on a new intercity express service which would operate on the South West Main Line between London Waterloo and Southampton Central under the Grand Southern brand. The proposal was rejected by the Office of Rail & Road on the 1 August 2018.[33] The services would have operated as intercity services with each 5 car train offering around 300 seats.[34] In February 2020 the first two sets (442405 and 442424) were scrapped at Eastleigh.[35]

In 2016 a driving car was nominated for preservation by the Railway Heritage Designation Advisory Board. This may see one preserved after it is retired.[36]

• Fox, Peter (1994). Electric Multiple Units. British Railways Pocket Book No.4 (7th ed.). Platform 5. ISBN 9781872524603.
• Marsden, Colin J. (2011). Traction Recognition (2nd ed.). Ian Allan. ISBN 9780711034945.