Greater Anglia

Greater Anglia (legal name Abellio East Anglia Limited) is a train operating company in Great Britain owned as a joint venture by Abellio, the international arm of the state-owned Dutch national rail operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen, and the Japanese trading company Mitsui & Co. 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. Initially it traded 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. The sale was completed in March 2017.

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 as a result of 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
See also: 2016–18 United Kingdom rail strikes § Greater Anglia

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 Transportation'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.

In August 2017, amidst a background of ongoing rail strikes on a national level, Greater Anglia conductors voted in favour of going on strike in a dispute over planned ticket office closures and the planned introduction of more widespread driver-only operation on the Greater Anglia network. Industrial action has been held on numerous occasions since October 2017, and the dispute remains unresolved as of February 2018; Greater Anglia has been criticised by the RMT for its alleged strike-breaking tactics.

Greater Anglia franchise (2012–2016)
Further information: Greater Anglia franchise

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 Greater Anglia and management of the station later passed to TfL Rail).

East Anglia franchise (2016–2025)
Further information: East Anglia franchise

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.
 * £60 million 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 programmes with offers for infrequent travellers and part-time workers.
 * Introduction of an automatic Delay Repay service for season and advance ticket holders.
 * £120 million of investment into depots with a new maintenance facility at Manningtree.
 * Hiring of twenty trainees per year and at least thirty 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.
 * Improving the frequency of the Ipswich to Cambridge Line and East Suffolk Line services from every two hours to hourly respectively on Sundays.

Services
As of December 2019, the following services operate during the off-peak period, Monday to Saturday.

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

Dutchflyer
Greater Anglia operates the Dutchflyer sub-branded boat train between London Liverpool Street and Harwich International. There is no special livery for trains.

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% and in 2016 Abellio Greater Anglia were rated the fourth worst UK train operator with a commuter rail services satisfaction rating of 35%.

Rolling stock
Greater 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, Greater Anglia was not planning to introduce any new trains before their second franchise term started in October 2016.

In November 2013, an online petition was launched, aiming to stop Greater Anglia trains from dumping raw sewage from the train toilets. There were also concerns with the 'sewage mist' from passing trains making Network Rail staff ill, and Greater Anglia announced it was "working closely" with the government to introduce a fleet upgrade. As of October 2016 all Mark 3 carriages and class 156 units have controlled emission toilets.

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 Greater Anglia franchise.

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

Bombardier's order included all 111 Class 720 units for taking over local and commuter services out of Liverpool Street. Stadler's order included 20 twelve-carriage Class 745 units for taking over intercity services on the Great Eastern Main Line and the Stansted Express as well as 38 three and four carriage Class 755 units for taking over all local diesel route services from the previous outdated rolling stock.

The first unit of the new order to enter service was the Class 755 fleet, of which the first one entered service on 29 July 2019 on the Norwich to Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft route. The next of the order was the Class 745/0 fleet, of which the first one entered service on 8 January 2020 on the Great Eastern Main Line operating services between Norwich and Liverpool Street. Following the introduction of these units, the loco-hauled Class 90 sets have all been withdrawn from service, with the last set running its last services on 24 March 2020.

In March 2020, testing of the new Class 720 fleet finally began and is continuing to be done despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in order to allow the first unit to enter service within the next few months. Following this, the first 745/1 unit entered service on 30 March 2020 on the Norwich to Liverpool Street intercity route as a replacement of a 745/0 unit. There is no current estimate for when the 745/1 units will began operating the Stansted Express, so the units will operate some of the intercity services if needed in lieu of a 745/0 unit.

More fleet
The following types of rolling stock is a Class 720.

Past fleet
Former train types operated by Greater Anglia include some.

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