EAST ANGLIA ~ General Updates

(C) tibshelf

As Editor for the East Anglia patch, my role is to bring you plenty of updates to keep you informed.

Direct Rail Services' 37422 took Loco 90012 and mark 3 coaches 10146 and 11096 (Abellio Greater Anglia) to Willesdon on Monday 7th for maintenance.

10403 and 12049 returned the other way today (Tues 8th Dec), and these coaches are now in the AGA livery following repaint. As previously reported, this project will mean that 7 catering coaches 10200/10203/10214/10216/10223/10228/10247 will have First Class seating removed in favour of Standard seating, and a refurbished catering area installed. It will then look like sister 10403, which was recently at Doncaster to have a refurbishment, as these carriages have a similar layout to how it will look and are known for their mini buffet.  A reminder that all of the latest fleet updates are in our dedicated Fleet Lists. 10229 will go off lease.

Meanwhile, 90006, 90009 and 90012 are currently away from home. The former two are undergoing above haul and repaint, with one due back within the next 2 weeks. This is just alleged, not yet confirmed, so please don't rely on it. 360119 has been refurbished according to Robert.

The Liverpool Street (London) station upgrade is so far going as planned, where new retail units and a ticket office will be installed.

Meanwhile, you may have remembered us talking about the Norwich station refurbishment, which is also well underway (departure screens all now fitted, whilst the new customer service booth and first class lounge follows soon).

TFL 317709 and all 315s have been repainted. Thanks Robert for this, we appreciate your contribution.

At C2C, Cross-Country and EastMidlandsTrains there's nothing to report aside from the Timetable changes, as recently mentioned. 

Also to announce is that Train Tickets are expected to increase in price by at least 1% in the new year, to correlate with the rising costs of maintenance and investment. I've created a quick break-down of how money is spent. This pie-chart shows roughly how much of every pound is spent where. As you can see, TOC profits are where money goes to the least, whilst most goes to staffing and maintaining tracks/trains.

The Class 170 refurbishment programme has begun at Abellio GreaterAnglia, which will see £100,000 pumped into new seat covers and a refresh for the 12 Class 170s (170271-4 and 170201-208). The first unit to receive this project is back in service, according to Luke it's believed to be 170271. Another contributor tells us that 170208 (Breckland Livery) is at Loughborough, so could this also be for new seat covers? We'll have to wait and see!

Finally, Saturday (12th) is the Santa Train. He'll be on the Greater Anglia 10:58/12:58 Ely to Peterborough and 11:50/13:50 Peterborough to Ely! Harry