British Rail Class 458

The British Rail Class 458 Coradia Juniper is a class of electric multiple unit passenger trains of the Alstom Coradia Juniper family, built at Washwood Heath between 1998 and 2002 for South West Trains. The order for the original fleet of 30 four-car trains was placed in 1997, delivery of the first unit followed in October 1998, and the fleet entered passenger service between 2000 and 2003 and is maintained at Bournemouth depot. Between 2013 and 2016 the class was merged with the mechanically similar Class 460 fleet and extensively rebuilt to form 36 five-car units designated Class 458/5 to increase capacity on services into London Waterloo. In 1997 South West Trains and the lessor Porterbrook awarded Alstom a 90 million pound contract, and all 30 units were fitted out at the former Metro-Cammell works at Washwood Heath, which Alstom had acquired in 1989, with the bodyshells built in Barcelona. In March 2021 South Western Railway announced that 28 units would be refurbished for long-distance Portsmouth Direct services, and by 2024 the refurbished units were instead deployed on limited services out of London Waterloo.