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A delegation of stakeholder from the East Anglian region were invited as guests of Abellio to visit the Stadler factory in Switzerland to see the new trains in production. Fiona Ryder, Vice President of the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce was amongst the delegates
Entire fleet of trains to be replaced by Greater Anglia. Greater Anglia is replacing its entire fleet of trains in 2019/20 in a £1.4billion investment programme. 169 new trains made of up of 1043 new carriages are being built by two train manufacturers - Bombardier (665 carriages) in Derby and Stadler (378 carriages) in Switzerland. The new Stadler intercity trains are expected to improve the journey time from London to Norwich by an estimated 10 minutes, a significant step in the right direction for regular services into London delivering a journey time of 90 minutes or fewer from Norwich and 60 minutes or fewer from Ipswich on some daily weekday services bringing a boost to the local economy. Mike Kean, Abellio’s Deputy Managing Director said the new Stadler fleet would enable Abellio to move from ‘Train constrained to infrastructure constrained’.
The first trains are almost complete and will then go through a testing, commissioning and employee training programme, initially on the continent and then in the UK, over the next 12 months. The new trains all have air conditioning, wi-fi, plug points, USB ports, improved accessibility and cycle parking. The intercity trains also have First Class accommodation and a café bar.
The new Intercity Stadler train The 58 trains Stadler is building include both the 10 intercity trains for the Norwich - Ipswich Colchester - London route and the 38 “bi-mode” trains (which can operate with both diesel and electric power) for the regional and local lines across Norfolk from Norwich to Cambridge, Sheringham, Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft. They are also building the 10 new Stansted Express trains.
NORFOLK VOICE • THE MAGAZINE OF NORFOLK CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
As well as an improved travelling environment, they will provide at least 20% more seats, better reliability and some new services, such as some direct Norwich to Stansted Airport services, as well as 4 direct Lowestoft to London services and hourly Ipswich to Peterborough services on weekdays. The first new trains are due to enter passenger service in early Summer 2019, with some of the bi-mode trains phased in on the local lines in Norfolk and Suffolk, at the start of the full roll-out, which is due to be complete at the end of 2020.
JULY/AUGUST 2018