Major improvements planned, plus special ticket offer to herald the new era
A new era for the railway in East Anglia was launched across our region yesterday. Abellio subisidiary company Greater Anglia is starting a new nine-year franchise to provide passenger rail services to and from London across Norfolk, Essex, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire.
People in East Anglia can now look forward to a £2 billion package of improvements to transform rail travel in the region.
Highlights include a complete fleet of brand new trains (replacing every single train in the current fleet with a larger fleet of new trains during 2019/2020 – up from 933 carriages to 1043 carriages); more services; faster journey times; 55 per cent more seats into London in the morning peak period; initiatives to improve punctuality from 89% to almost 93%; £60 million of improvements in stations and new ticket options offering even better value for money.
The majority of major upgrades, linked to the new trains, will be delivered in 2019/2020, but there are a number of other improvements delivered over the first three years of the franchise including 72 additional carriages to provide more seats from summer 2017; free wi-fi; automatic delay repay compensation for season ticket holders and advance ticket holders from early in 2017; ticket vending machines at every station; new customer information screens and help points at every station; at least 1800 additional car parking spaces and 4000 extra cycle parking places at stations around the network; a refresh and deep clean for all stations; significant investment in reliability modifications and interior refreshes for the existing fleet of trains and more investment in customer service and the Community Rail Partnerships.
To mark the start of the new franchise, Greater Anglia is running a “Wake up to Weekdays” offer with special adult return fares – £10, £15 or £20 for off-peak travel. Children can travel for just £2 return. Tickets are available to purchase until 30 October for travel up to 30 November, including the autumn half-term period.
After attending a special franchise launch event at Liverpool Street station, London, with Rail Minister Paul Maynard, there will be events at Chelmsford, Ipswich, Norwich and Cambridge to mark the start of the franchise with regional stakeholders.
Jamie Burles, Managing Director for Greater Anglia said: “This is an exciting time for the railway in our region. This is the first franchise renewal to see a train operator replace its entire fleet with brand new trains. I’m looking forward to leading Greater Anglia as we transform the railway.
“We have a huge programme of improvements planned for trains, stations, timetables, journey times, ticketing, performance and wider customer service standards. Today really is the start of a period of major investment and improvement to upgrade services for customers and communities across the region.”
Stakeholders across the region have welcomed the new franchise and the planned upgrades. At Norwich station, Andrew Goodrum, Greater Anglia Customer Services Director, and Michelle Smart, Human Resources Director, marked the new franchise with James Mason, Board member for Norfolk Chamber of Commerce, Ted Gadsden, Chairman of the Bittern Line Community Rail Partnership (CRP) and Ian Dinmore, Chairman of the Wherry Lines CRP.
James Mason said: “I was delighted to represent Norfolk Chamber at Norwich railway station to mark the commencement of the new Greater Anglia rail franchise. The Chamber has worked very hard to promote great infrastructure for the benefit of the Norfolk economy and the developments expected through this franchise will be most beneficial to business in our region.”
