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 the ceremony on November 25, the rail franchise picked up four awards:

* The Class 458/5s were named runner-up in the new generation electric multiple unit category. These trains run on the Waterloo to Windsor route;

* The Class 455 units, which run on the busy Suburban lines, won the award for the most reliable former British Rail electric multiple unit;

* The Class 444s, which run on the London to Weymouth/Portsmouth line, were awarded for best new generation electric multiple unit; and

* The Class 159s, which run from London to stations west of Salisbury, 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.