THE first of South West Trains' new £100 million fleet of Juniper 458s pulled into Alton station last Friday at the start of its debut run. Its arrival was welcomed by members of the Alton Line Users' Association, who hope to see it come into service on this line before too long.

As part of its passenger trials, the first electrical multiple unit to come on line since the start of privatisation, the new train formed the 10-34 am Alton to London Waterloo service, and went on to make four trips to and from London during the off-peak period.

A full version of this story can be found in the Alton Herald of March 3, 2000.