The British Rail Class 455 is an electric multiple unit passenger train built by BREL[1] between 1982 and 1985.

It is operated on suburban services in Greater London and Surrey by South Western Railway, as well as formerly by Southern.

71732 was re-fitted with sliding doors but 71731 was removed from service, remaining at Eastleigh Works to be cannibalised for spare parts.

The latter car served as a demonstrator for the South West Trains refurbished full red livery until it was scrapped in 2005.

Two units later gained replacement carriages that had originally been part of the prototype Class 210 DEMU, which had the same bodyshell.

From September 1996, SWT began to modify the Network SouthEast livery with a Stagecoach orange brand added.

[20] In April 2013, it was announced that the SWT units would be fitted with a new alternating current traction system provided by Vossloh Kiepe.

The project works commenced in June 2014 and involved replacing the original pneumatically-actuated camshaft control system with a solid-state insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) inverter and variable-voltage/variable-frequency (VVVF) drive, and exchanging the as-built English Electric DC traction motors with new AC units.

[24] In early 2024, to mark the upcoming withdrawal of the Class 455s, unit 455868 was repainted into BR Blue and Grey livery.

All were initially allocated to Wimbledon Depot working services on the Central and South Western divisions.

[3] During April 1994, amid the lead up to the privatisation of British Rail, 455801-455846 were allocated to the Network SouthCentral shadow franchise and sold to Eversholt.

New 3+2 high back seating as fitted to the Class 377 and the removal of cab end gangways to facilitate the installation of driver's air-conditioning were notable features.

[36][37][page needed] A third refurbishment programme began in January 2018 for the 455s to become compliant with the PRM 2020 specifications with 455816 being the first one completed.

[56] To commemorate the class, unit 455868 was repainted into a blue and grey BR-inspired livery and re-entered service on 7 March 2024.