Passengers assured that infrastructure will be ready to handle new GA trains

Greater Anglia has addressed concerns that the East Anglian infrastructure will not be ready for the operator’s new trains.

Local campaign groups have questioned in the past if Network Rail will be able to deliver the required infrastructure upgrades in time for the new trains to enter traffic ( RAIL 810).

However, GA Deputy Managing Director Mike Kean told RAIL on June 6: “Network Rail is going OK. It has a lot of work to deliver a lot of new trains around the country, but we have found that at our route level the work is going well. There is gauge clearance and commissioning with a test train. We are working with MTR to use its information from Class 345 testing.”

Separately, RAIL also understands that GA’s decision to build 111 Class 720 Aventras as purely Standard Class trains may change, with thought being given to a small First Class section. That decision must be made before the end of the year, at which point a design freeze will have been put in place.

The ‘720s’ are designed to work on the West Anglia route, all Great Eastern Main Line route suburban trains as far as Ipswich, Clacton, Harwich and Southend, and one train per hour in each direction to Norwich (the planned third train an hour, which will be a LondonIpswich train extended through to the Norfolk city).

Meanwhile, Kean told RAIL that Brexit will not affect GA’s £1 billion worth of new trains on order, or other improvements. However, the operator awaits the impact of the wider economic situation regarding the UK’s decision to leave the European Union.

The operator must pay £3.7bn in premium payments over the course of the nine-year franchise. Abellio bid for the original deal separately, and retains a 60% share in the business, with Mitsui taking a 40% share earlier this year ( RAIL 818).

Kean said costs set as part of the new franchise, awarded on August 10 last year (RAIL 807) and which began running in mid-October, were fixed.

However, regarding the wider impact of Brexit, GA serves Stratford and Liverpool Street, both of which have connections to the City, and this could have a negative impact on passenger figures. The uncertainty has already forced Network Rail into rethinking its plans for redeveloping Stratford.

Kean said that passenger numbers were “performing well at the moment”. He added that there was a protection mechanism built into the financial deal for the franchise