Courtesy of Wikipedia At the dawn of the 21st century, as part of its franchise agreement, South West Trains (SWT) was required to order new trains to replace the old slam-door stock of Classes 411, 412, 421 and 423. Therefore, in April 2001, an order was placed with Siemens AG for 785 vehicles. This order was originally to be split as 100 four-car Class 450/0 outer-suburban units, 32 five-car Class 450/2 inner-suburban units and 45 five-car Class 444 express units. The Class 444 fleet was built by Siemens at its Vienna plant in Austria Before shipping to Britain via the Channel Tunnel, The Desiro fleet entered service faster than its competitors, but the trains still suffered from teething problems. Units have end-gangways, which allows people to move between units when they are used in multiple on services. Trains are limited to a 10-coach length (i.e. two units) as longer trains cannot be accommodated in stations. The fleet is painted in SWT's express livery of white, with a blue window band, and red/orange swishes at the cab ends. Each five car unit has a first class section taking up just over half of one car at one end, first class seats have sockets providing AC power suitable for laptops or mobile phone charges, while the car at the other end is standard class throughout and appears ordinary but has sockets under the tables. Like all new build third rail stock in the UK, one coach in each unit is fitted with a recess for a pantograph. This allows for a future conversion to AC overhead power.

Century 21 Real Estate LLC has announced the expansion of the CENTURY 21 System in Europe with the signing of a master franchise agreement to license CENTURY 21® franchises in Germany. Caption: L-R Front: Pascal Bayard, managing director, CENTURY 21 Deutschland, Rick Davidson, president and CEO, Century 21 Real Estate LLC, Christian Ammann, managing director, CENTURY 21 Deutschland. L-R Back: Mark Foreman, senior vice president, Century 21 Real Estate LLC, Greg Sexton, senior vice president, Century 21 Real Estate LLC, Chris Kervandjian, vice president, Century 21 Real Estate LLC, Mark Friend, international business consultant.