Greater Anglia (train operating company)

Greater Anglia

Overview
Franchise(s):	Greater Anglia 5 Feb 2012 - 15 Oct 2016 East Anglia 16 Oct 2016 - 2025
Main region(s):	Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk & Suffolk
Other region(s):	London & Hertfordshire
Stations called at:	170
Stations operated:	154
Parent company:	Abellio
Website:	www.greateranglia.co.uk
Route map

Abellio East Anglia Limited,^[1] trading as Greater Anglia, is a train operating company in Great Britain owned by Abellio. 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.

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 that year as the East Anglia franchise, and was awarded to Abellio in August 2016. The company resumed trading as Greater Anglia on 16 October 2016 when the new franchise commenced.

History

Background

Abellio Greater Anglia logo as used from December 2013 until October 2016

In December 2003 the Strategic Rail Authority awarded the Greater Anglia franchise to National Express, with operations starting on 1 April 2004 under the "One" brand.^[2][3] 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.^[4][5]

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.^[6] As a result, National Express East Anglia was granted an initial extension until October 2011, followed by another until February 2012.^[7]

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.^[8] 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.^[9][10][11]

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.^[12] 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.^[13] On the same day, the Liverpool Street to Shenfield stopping services transferred to the TfL Rail concession managed by MTR.^[14]

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.^[15] 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.^[16]

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.^[17][18]

Franchise commitments

Greater Anglia Franchise (2012-2016)

A number of improvements were planned during the first franchise period (2012-2016) which included:^[9]

• 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):^[19]

• 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.^[20]
• 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:^[21]

Stansted Express

Abellio Greater Anglia operates the Stansted Express sub-branded airport rail link between London Liverpool Street and Stansted Airport.^[22]

Dutchflyer

Abellio Greater Anglia operates the Dutchflyer sub-branded boat train between London Liverpool Street and Harwich International.^[23]

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.^[24][25] 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%.^[26]

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^[27] 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.

Fleet table

Class	Image	Type	Top speed		Carriages	Number	Routes operated	Built
			mph	km/h
Class 37		Diesel	80	129	N/A	4	Wherry Lines	1960–65
Class 68		Diesel	100	161		3		2013–
Mark 2 Carriage		Carriage	100	161		6		1963–75
Class 90		Electric	110	177	N/A	15	Great Eastern Main Line	1987–90
Mark 3 Carriage		Carriage	125	201		130		1975–88
		DVT	110	177		15		1988
Class 153 Super Sprinter		DMU	75	121	1	5	Bittern Line, East Suffolk Line, Ely to Peterborough Line, Felixstowe Branch Line, Gainsborough Line, Ipswich to Ely Line, Wherry Lines	1987–88
Class 156 Super Sprinter		DMU	75	121	2	9		1987–89
Class 170/2 Turbostar		DMU	100	161	2	4	Bittern Line, Breckland Line, East Suffolk Line, Ely to Peterborough Line, Ipswich to Ely Line, Wherry Lines	1999–2002
					3	8
Class 317/5		EMU	100	161	4	15	Fen Line, Hertford East Branch Line, Lea Valley Lines, West Anglia Main Line	1981–82
Class 317/6						24		1985–87
Class 317/7						1		1981–82
Class 317/8						6		1981–82
Class 321/3		EMU	100	161	4	66	Braintree Branch Line, Crouch Valley Line, Dutchflyer, Great Eastern Main Line, Mayflower Line, Shenfield to Southend Line, Sunshine Coast Line	1988–90
Class 321/4						28		1989–90
Class 360/1 Desiro		EMU	100	161	4	21	Braintree Branch Line, Great Eastern Main Line, Mayflower Line, Sunshine Coast Line	2002–03
Class 379 Electrostar		EMU	100	161	4	30	Fen Line, Stansted Express, West Anglia Main Line	2010–11

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.^[18][19][28] 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.^[29][30]

The following types of rolling stock are planned:^[19]

Class	Image	Type	Top speed		Carriages	Number	Routes operated	Built	Entry into service
			mph	km/h
TBA		EMU	100	161	5	89	West Anglia, Great Eastern	TBA	2019–20
					10	22
TBA		EDMU[31]	100	161	3	14	Regional routes	TBA	2019–20
					4	24
		EMU			12	10	Inter-city routes
					12	10	Stansted Express Inter-city stopper

Past fleet

Former units operated by Abellio Greater Anglia include:

Class	Image	Type	Top speed		Carriages	Number	Built	Withdrawn	Notes
			mph	km/h
Class 315		EMU	75	121	4	61	1980–81	2015	Transferred to TfL Rail (44) London Overground (17)

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.^[32] 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.^[33]

Depots

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

Notes

References

External links

Media related to Abellio Greater Anglia at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website