Greater Anglia
DfT franchise documents reveal how many extra seats will be available on Greater Anglia’s new electric multiple units.
CAPACITY details for Greater Anglia’s 1,043 new vehicles that are due to enter traffic from 2019 were revealed in franchise documents released by the Department for Transport on April 20.
The documents show that the ten-car outer-suburban Class 720 Aventra electric multiple units (EMUs) being built by Bombardier will have 1,145 seats and space for 290 standing passengers, with no First Class accommodation. There will be three wheelchair spaces. The five-car ‘720s’ will have 544 Standard Class seats and space for 145 standing passengers, with two wheelchair spaces and no First Class seats.
The trains, which are due to be leased from February 2019, will replace Class 321s which, although built as four-car EMUs, run in 12-car formations.
By way of comparison, an un-refurbished four-car Class 321/3 offers 292 Standard Class seats, space for 122 standing passengers and 16 First Class seats, but no wheelchair space. Similarly, a refurbished Renatus ‘321/3’ offers 265 Standard Class seats, 116 standing spaces and 12 First Class seats, plus two wheelchair spaces.
This means an overall increase of 269 seats - from 876 Standard Class seats in a 12-car ‘321’ to 1,145 in a ten-car ‘720’ (although First Class is lost).
Meanwhile, the ten 12-car EMUs being built by Stadler to replace Class 90/Mk 3 sets on Great Eastern Main Line will have 672 Standard Class seats, with room for 245 standing passengers. A further 80 First Class seats will be installed, and three spaces provided for wheelchairs. These trains are leased from May 2019, and all ten will be leased by October of that year.
This will represent an increase in capacity over that currently afforded by the ‘90’/Mk 3 fleet of eight ninecar sets. These offer 528 Standard Class seats, 341 standing spaces and 86 First Class seats, plus two wheelchair spaces. Three eight-car sets offer 475 Standard Class seats, 307 standing spaces, 86 First Class
seats and two wheelchair spaces.
Lease dates are also given for the various ‘classic fleets’, with the local diesel multiple unit (DMU) fleet starting to be returned to their owners in 2019.
First of these will be the five Class 153s (153306/309/314/322/335) that have a lease expiry date of August 31 2019. These will be followed by eight three-car Class 170s (170201-170208) and three two-car Class 170s (from 170270170273). These have a lease expiry date of October 1 2019, although one two-car ‘170’ remains on lease until January 31 2020.
The final DMUs to be returned to their owners will be the nine two-car Class 156s (156402/407/409/416-419/422), which have a lease expiry of December 30 2019.
All of GA’s DMU fleet is owned by Porterbrook, which also owns the ‘90’/Mk 3 fleet (this lease expires on January 1 2020). These feature 118 coaches and 15 locomotives.
For the EMU fleets, Class 317s will start to be sent off-lease in 2019, with the Class 360 fleet the last to do so in August 2020.
EMU withdrawals start with nine Class 317s by May 31 2019 from various sub-classes (including demonstrator 317722), with the final ‘317s’ due to be sent off-lease on April 30 2020.
October 31 2019 is the lease expiry date for 36 non-refurbished Class 321/3s and 38 nonrefurbished Class 321/4s, while the refurbished Renatus Class 321/3 fleet goes off-lease on December 1 2019.
Finally, the 2003-built Class 360 Desiros and 2011-built Class 379 Electrostars (the most modern EMUs in the current GA fleet) will be sent off-lease within weeks of each other. The lease for the 30 Class 379s expires on August 1 2020, with the deal for the 21 Class 360s ending on August 31 2020.