SOUTH West Trains has scooped a quartet of prestigious Golden Spanner Awards for reliability.

Organised by industry magazine Modern Railways, the awards serve to highlight the most reliable train fleets in the country.

And at last month’s ceremony, the rail franchise picked up four awards:

• Class 458/5s (Waterloo to Windsor) named runner-up in new generation electric multiple unit category

• Class 455 units, which run on the busy Suburban lines, won the award for most reliable ex-British Rail electric multiple unit

• Class 444s, (London to Weymouth and Portsmouth) awarded best new generation electric multiple unit

• Class 159s (London to Salisbury and west) were awarded the most reliable former British Rail diesel multiple unit.

Duncan Wilkins, fleet director for South West Trains, said: “We are delighted to win four of these very prestigious awards. It’s testament to the hard work of our fleet team that they have once again done so well and been recognised in this special way.

“Since we run one of the busiest networks in Europe, the reliability of our fleet is crucial to ensure we keep the network running on time, every day.

“Reliable trains mean we can be as punctual as possible and get our passengers to where they need to be.”

The annual Golden Spanner Awards recognise improvements in train reliability across the UK rail industry.

The awards are based on statistical data and are regarded as being an accurate assessment of fleet reliability.

Different classes of trains operating throughout the network are ranked on the distance they cover between technical faults by Rail Delivery Group’s fleet reliability improvement programme.