New Forest service postponed over door safety issues of revamped train fleet

AN EXTRA train service through the New Forest has been postponed by South Western Railway due to problems with the door safety systems on the carriages.

The company had planned to use its newly refurbished Class 442 fleet to bring in an extra weekday service from London Waterloo to Poole.

But instead of starting this week as intended, engineers are working to fix the rolling stock before they can start carrying passengers.

The 6.48pm London Waterloo to Poole service through the New Forest has been shelved, as has the 6.28am Southampton Airport Parkway to London Waterloo.

The weekday trains are the only ones to be delayed out of 300 extra weekly services coming in this summer, said SWR managing director Andy Mellors.

He added: “We had planned to introduce three newly-refurbished 10-car Class 442 trains with the start of the new summer timetable but unfortunately an issue with a safety feature of the doors has emerged this week.

“Until this issue is rectified we cannot put the trains into service and risk passenger injury. Safety has to be our number one priority.”