In March 2017, South Western Railway (SWR) was awarded the South Western franchise, announcing plans to refurbish and enter 18 Class 442s into service for use on London Waterloo to Portsmouth services.

SWR awarded Kiepe Electric a contract to undertake the £45m refurbishment.
Work will include replacing the life-expired DC traction equipment (which was salvaged from older trains built during the 1960s) with an AC package incorporating IGBT technology from Kiepe Electric Düsseldorf.
New brake controls from Knorr-Bremse Rail Vehicle Systems will permit regenerative braking.

Delays led to the first services of refurbished units due to begin in May 2019, however problems with the door locks saw the units temporarily removed from service again until June 2019 for the fault to be rectified.

The same limited service continued until 2 September 2019 where they were withdrawn from service due to the fears that the units were wrongly turning signals to danger as the train approached them.
It was thought to be around the Earlsfield area that they were doing this which caused delays on the busy section of track they operated on.
The withdrawal of the units continued until the issue was resolved and testing of the units was undertook, allowing the class to re-enter service on 6 January 2020 beginning on the London Waterloo to Portsmouth route this time.
In March 2017, South Western Railway (SWR) was awarded the South Western franchise, announcing plans to refurbish and enter 18 Class 442s into service for use on London Waterloo to Portsmouth services.
SWR awarded Kiepe Electric a contract to undertake the £45m refurbishment. Work will include replacing the life-expired DC traction equipment (which was salvaged from older trains built during the 1960s) with an AC package incorporating IGBT technology from Kiepe Electric Düsseldorf. New brake controls from Knorr-Bremse Rail Vehicle Systems will permit regenerative braking.
Delays led to the first services of refurbished units due to begin in May 2019, however problems with the door locks saw the units temporarily removed from service again until June 2019 for the fault to be rectified.
The same limited service continued until 2 September 2019 where they were withdrawn from service due to the fears that the units were wrongly turning signals to danger as the train approached them. It was thought to be around the Earlsfield area that they were doing this which caused delays on the busy section of track they operated on. The withdrawal of the units continued until the issue was resolved and testing of the units was undertook, allowing the class to re-enter service on 6 January 2020 beginning on the London Waterloo to Portsmouth route this time.
British Rail Class 442