Greater Anglia sets March 2019 date for new EMUs
BOMBARDIER Aventras will enter traffic with Greater Anglia from March 2019, the operator has confirmed.
GA has 665 electric multiple unit vehicles on order from Bombardier, with the first due to be delivered in December next year for testing.
The EMUs are to be used on commuter routes south of Ipswich, although some will reach Norwich. They are designed to replace the Class 317, ‘321’ and ‘360’ EMU fleets that the operator currently uses.
GA spokesman Lucy Wright told RAIL that the main maintenance facility for the Aventras will be at Ilford, and that they will enter service before the first of 378 Stadler vehicles that are due in traffic from May 2019.
Wright explained this is because it will be the first time Stadler trains have entered traffic in the UK. She also confirmed that some ‘legacy fleets’ will be retained for “maybe three or four months” to cover for the rollout of the new fleets.
She said that details were being finalised, but that the 21 Class 360 and 30 Class 379s were already compliant with the Persons of Reduced Mobility Technical Specification for Interoperability (PRM-TSI) regulations, for which the deadline is January 1 2020, and thus offered operational flexibility.
There have been suggestions that up to six rakes of Mk 3s and Class 90s would be retained to cover for the arrival of the new trains. However, the coaches would require modifying for PRM-TSI regulations.
In an exclusive interview in February, Stadler told RAIL that the first Stadler trains would be delivered to the UK in spring 2019, and that all 58 on order would be in traffic by the end of that year ( RAIL 821).
These will be a mixture of bi-mode and EMU fleets, and will be used on the Great Eastern Main Line expresses, Stansted Express and regional routes.