Suvarna Garge (Editor)

Greater Anglia (train operating company)

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Other region(s)
  
London & Hertfordshire

Parent organization
  
Abellio Deutschland

Stations called at
  
170

Stations operated
  
154

Founded
  
2012

Greater Anglia (train operating company) httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediaenthumbe

Franchise(s)
  
Greater Anglia 5 Feb 2012 - 15 Oct 2016 East Anglia 16 Oct 2016 - 2025

Main region(s)
  
Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk & Suffolk

Parent company
  
Abellio (60%) Mitsui (40%)

Website
  
www.greateranglia.co.uk

Profiles

Twitter

Abellio East Anglia Limited, trading as Greater Anglia, is a train operating company in Great Britain owned by Abellio, the international arm of the state-owned Dutch national rail operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen.. It operates the East Anglia franchise, providing the majority of commuter/regional services from its Central London terminus at London Liverpool Street to Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk and parts of Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire as well as many regional services throughout the East of England.

Contents

Abellio began operating the franchise, then known as the Greater Anglia franchise, in February 2012. It traded initially under the same name until it rebranded as Abellio Greater Anglia in December 2013. In May 2015, most of the company's suburban services were transferred to London Overground and the precursor to Crossrail, TfL Rail.

The franchise was re-tendered as the East Anglia franchise and awarded to Abellio in August 2016. The company resumed trading as Greater Anglia on 16 October 2016 when the new franchise commenced. In January 2017, Abellio announced that subject to gaining Department for Transport approval, it had agreed to sell a 40% stake in the business to Mitsui.

Background

In December 2003 the Strategic Rail Authority awarded the Greater Anglia franchise to National Express, with One commencing operations starting on 1 April 2004. The franchise was to run until March 2011, with provision for a three-year extension if performance targets were met.

In November 2009 the Department for Transport announced that National Express would not be granted the three-year extension for which it had met the criteria, after National Express East Coast had defaulted on the InterCity East Coast franchise.

Following a change of government at the 2010 General Election, the Department for Transport announced in June 2010 that all refranchising would be put on hold while a review was conducted into the franchising process. As a result, National Express East Anglia was granted an initial extension until October 2011, followed by another until February 2012.

Abellio granted franchise

In March 2011 the Department for Transport announced that Abellio, Go-Ahead, and Stagecoach had been shortlisted to bid for the franchise. In October 2011 it awarded the new franchise to Abellio; the services operated by National Express East Anglia transferred to Greater Anglia on 5 February 2012.

The franchise was originally to run until July 2014. The reason for awarding a short franchise, at the same time as the government was speaking of a desire to move to longer franchises, was to allow the government to digest the recommendations of the McNulty Rail Value for Money study before letting a long-term franchise.

In March 2013 the Secretary of State for Transport announced the franchise would again be extended until 15 October 2016. Greater Anglia was rebranded as Abellio Greater Anglia in December 2013.

On 31 May 2015 the Liverpool Street to Enfield Town, Cheshunt (via Seven Sisters) and Chingford services, as well as the Romford to Upminster service, transferred to London Overground Rail Operations. On the same day, the Liverpool Street to Shenfield stopping services transferred to the TfL Rail concession managed by MTR.

On 22 December 2014 the refurbishment of the company's fleet of Mark 3 carriages began, involving a total internal rewiring, new toilets with waste-retention tanks, improved Wi-Fi provision, plug sockets at each seat, and a complete refresh of body panels, carpets and seat covers. The refurbishment programme was completed in 2016.

Franchise renewal

In June 2015, an Abellio (60%)/Stagecoach (40%) joint venture, FirstGroup and National Express were shortlisted to bid for the franchise. In December 2015 it was announced that Stagecoach had pulled out of the joint bid with Abellio, and that Abellio would continue the bid alone.

In August 2016, it was announced that Abellio had successfully bid to retain the franchise until 2025. A franchise commitment is to purchase 1,043 new carriages, 660 from Bombardier's Derby Litchurch Lane Works with the other 383 to be built by Stadler Rail. In January 2017, Abellio announced that subject to gaining Department for Transport approval, it had agreed to sell a 40% stake in the business to Mitsui.

Greater Anglia Franchise (2012-2016)

A number of improvements were planned during the first franchise period (2012-2016) which included:

  • Improved station and ticket facilities and better information for passengers;
  • A text messaging service to keep passengers informed of any disruptions;
  • Extending Oyster card pay-as-you-go capabilities between London Liverpool Street and Shenfield/Hertford East;
  • Mobile-phone and print-at-home ticketing facilities;
  • 600 extra car park spaces at stations;
  • Additional bicycle storage facilities;
  • New automatic ticket barriers at Brentwood (No automatic ticket barrier was installed by Abellio and management of the station later passed to TfL Rail).

    • East Anglia Franchise (2016-2025)

    The following improvements have been planned as part of the Abellio bid for the East Anglia franchise (2016-2025):

  • Replacement of the entire current fleet, with 1,043 new vehicles by September 2020 to run on the Rural, Intercity, Stansted Express, West Anglia and Great Eastern routes.
  • Extensive refurbishment of some of the existing vehicles, prior to replacement.
  • Raise Public Performance Measure scores to at least 92.9%.
  • Two weekday trains operating between Norwich and Ipswich to London with a journey time of 90 min and 60 min respectively.
  • Free WiFi on trains and stations.
  • £60M investment for station upgrades with a focus on Broxbourne, Cambridge, Cheshunt, Harlow Town and Southend Victoria stations.
  • Introduction of digital information screens on all stations with improvements in car and cycle parking (1,800 and 4,000 extra spaces respectively) along with upgrades to ticket offices and vending machines.
  • New ticketing programs with offers for infrequent travelers and part time workers.
  • Introduction of an automatic delay repay service for season and advance ticket holders.
  • £120M of investment into depots with a new maintenance facility at Manningtree.
  • Hiring of 20 trainees per year and at least 30 apprenticeships by 2019.
  • Extension of the Gainsborough Line from Marks Tey to Colchester Town.
  • Reintroduction of four direct Lowestoft to London services on the East Suffolk Line.
  • Improving the frequency of the Ipswich to Ely Line services to Peterborough from every two hours to hourly with some additional services extending to Colchester.

    • Services

    As of September 2016, the following services operate during the off-peak period, Monday to Saturday:

    Stansted Express

    Abellio Greater Anglia operates the Stansted Express sub-branded airport rail link between London Liverpool Street and Stansted Airport.

    Dutchflyer

    Abellio Greater Anglia operates the Dutchflyer sub-branded boat train between London Liverpool Street and Harwich International.

    Performance

    The latest punctuality statistics released by Network Rail for period 7 of 2013/2014 were 94.0% PPM (Public Performance Measure) down 1.0 percentage points on the same period last year and the MAA (Moving Annual Average) up to 12 October 2013 also fell slightly to 92.3%. In 2013, Abellio Greater Anglia was named train operator of the year. However, a survey in February 2014 by the consumer group Which? found that customer satisfaction of Abellio Greater Anglia was at last place (out of 20 train operators) with a satisfaction percentage of 40%.

    Rolling stock

    Abellio East Anglia inherited a fleet of Class 90, Mark 3 carriages, Driving Van Trailers, Class 153, Class 156 and Class 170 diesel multiple units, and Class 315, Class 317, Class 321, Class 360 and Class 379 electric multiple units from National Express East Anglia. Due to its short initial franchise term, Abellio Greater Anglia was not planning to introduce any new trains before their second franchise term started in October 2016. On 31 May 2015, the company's fleet of Class 315 trains were cascaded to London Overground and TfL Rail, and some Class 317 trains have been cascaded to London Overground, which has taken over local services in North and East London from the AGA franchise.

    Future fleet

    In August 2016 it was announced 1,043 new carriages would be purchased, with Bombardier to build 111 Aventra electric multiple units and Stadler to build 58 FLIRT electric multiple units, which will come into service between January 2019 and September 2020. This will allow for all of the ageing stock to be replaced, especially given that a number of coaches are not compliant with accessibility requirements beyond 2019 and they would not be able to meet Abellio's new targets for lower journey times without extensive modification.

    The following types of rolling stock are planned:

    Past fleet

    Former units operated by Greater Anglia include:

    Livery

    Abellio Greater Anglia has continued to repaint rolling stock in the same base white livery as National Express East Anglia used, but with red doors instead of blue using Greater Anglia logos. During late 2013 new Abellio Greater Anglia logos started to be applied to trains.

    Sanitation

    In November 2013, an online petition was launched, with the aim to stop Greater Anglia trains from dumping raw sewage from the train toilets. There have also been concerns with the 'sewage mist' from passing trains making Network Rail staff ill, and Greater Anglia is "working closely" with the government to introduce a fleet upgrade. As of October 2016 all Mk3 carriages and class 156 units have controlled emission toilets.

    Depots

    Greater Anglia's fleet is maintained at Clacton-on-Sea, Ilford and Norwich Crown Point depots.

    References

    Greater Anglia (train operating company) Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA