National Express East Anglia

History

When the British Rail services operating out of London London Liverpool Street were privatised in January 1997, they were divided up between three train operating companies, Anglia Railways, First Great Eastern and West Anglia Great Northern.

In December 2001, the Strategic Rail Authority announced it planned to combine all of the services operating out of London Liverpool Street into one Greater Anglia franchise.

In April 2003, the Strategic Rail Authority announced Arriva, GB Railways and National Express had been shortlisted to bid for the new franchise. In December 2003, the franchise was awarded to National Express with all the services operated by Anglia Railways and First Great Eastern along with those out of London Liverpool Street by West Anglia Great Northern, transferring to One on 1 April 2004. The franchise was to run until March 2011, with provision for a three-year extension if performance targets were met.

The area names from the former franchises were initially retained as sub-brands by the new franchise, One Anglia, One Great Eastern and One West Anglia, however other than Stansted Express all services were soon branded as just One, reflecting the union of the three smaller franchises into one single franchise and standing for "Operated by National Express". This led to passenger confusion as they were unable to establish if announcements were for the 07:20 One service, or the 07:21 service resulting in the company's name being omitted from announcements. All dining car services were eliminated to pay for the livery costs incurred in repainting every piece of rolling stock in the franchise after the One rebranding exercise, though the new name had a life of less than 4 years.

In February 2008, as part of yet another group wide rebranding exercise, the franchise was redesignated again. This time it became National Express East Anglia.

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

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

After February 2012 the trains were run by Abellio Greater Anglia a subsidiary of Nederlandse Spoorwegen.

Services

In addition to its domestic services, the company was also a partner with Stena Line and Nederlandse Spoorwegen in the Dutchflyer service. Most of the London services use Liverpool Street as their terminus.

Former Anglia franchise

Former Great Eastern franchise

Former West Anglia Great Northern franchise

For eight weeks in summer 2004, Ipswich tunnel was closed with One running two Norwich to Liverpool Street services via Cambridge with Cotswold Rail Class 47s.

In December 2004 new services were introduced from Liverpool Street to Lowestoft (via East Suffolk Line or Norwich), Peterborough, Bury St Edmunds and Cambridge via Ipswich. However, in December 2010 these services become withdrawn.

The Liverpool Street to Harwich International Boat Trains used to be operated by Class 86s and Mark 2s, however EMUs took over the service.

Rolling stock

One inherited a fleet of Class 86, Mark 2 carriages, Driving Brake Standard Opens, Class 150, Class 153 and Class 170 Turbostar, Class 312, Class 315, Class 317, Class 321 and Class 360s from Anglia Railways, First Great Eastern and West Anglia Great Northern.

A franchise commitment was the replacement of the Class 86s and Mark 2 carriages with Class 90s and Mark 3 carriages that were being replaced by Virgin West Coast. Initially the Mark 3s entered service in the same run down condition as they had left Virgin, before all were overhauled at Bombardier Transportation, Derby. The last Class 86s and Mark 2 carriages were withdrawn in late 2006.

In 2005, the Class 150s were exchanged with nine Class 156s from Central Trains. In 2009, National Express East Anglia received 17 Class 321s transferred from London Midland.

Another franchise commitment was the procurement of new stock for the Stansted Express service. This resulted in 30 four-carriage Class 379 Electrostars being ordered with the first entering service in March 2011.

A Class 47 was hired from Cotswold Rail for use on rescue duties and to haul the initial weekday and later Summer Saturday only services from Norwich to Great Yarmouth. After Cotswold ceased trading in 2009, Direct Rail Services Class 47s were hired. DB Schenker often provided a Class 90s to cover for unavailability of One's fleet.

Diagrams

Class 360:

Class 321:

Class 379:

Performance

Infrastructure problems have affected performance. According to Network Rail, the main problems have been track-circuit failures, broken rails, track faults, points failures and overhead line equipment (OLE) failures. Network Rail, which is responsible for the infrastructure, intended to improve performance by work carried out during a planned closure of London Liverpool Street station over Christmas and New Year 2007/8. This allowed much of the outer London overhead line equipment to be replaced by modern, self-tensioning lines. The work was carried out, but overran at short notice by some 24 hours, causing ridicule in the national press.

Detailed figures (from the January edition of Modern Railways) of the miles covered per 5-minute delay for the year ending October 2009 showed that the most reliable trains in the fleet were again the Class 360 Desiros (mainly Clacton-on-Sea to London Liverpool Street), which achieved over 38,000 miles per five-minute delay. The 'workhorse' Class 321s by comparison returned some 21,500 miles per five-minute delay, while the 'Inter-City' Class 90 locomotive-hauled Norwich - Liverpool Street trains came in at some 14,000 miles per five-minute delay - this last figure being a 35% improvement on last year's 10,400. The Class 90 locomotives won the Silver Spanner award for InterCity rolling stock at the Annual National Rail Awards 2009.

Demise

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