National Rail Passenger Survey Results 2018, & Greater Anglia New Trains
It's that time of year again - the results for the National Rail Passenger Survey 2018 are in. Click here for a summary of the news.
Effectively though, Virgin East Coast are the highest performers. The GTR group though are at the bottom.
Meanwhile, at the Golden Whistle Awards, Greater Anglia was named the 'most improved' operator for punctuality on the Norwich to London Liverpool Street Mainline. This is a 5.8% increase compared to 2017!
Whilst on the topic of Greater Anglia, we've seen a first look at the Stadler FLIRTS which are now being built. These class 755 units are currently on the production line, and 3 or 4 carriages will be coupled together to form a unit.
As reported previously, from Summer this year the tests and trials will commence. Then in 2019, 38 of these 3-car and 4-car units will enter service to replace Class 153/156/170 Rural Units in 2019.
Below, a photo of the Stadler FLIRT power-unit. Effectively, this carriage will hold all the components which will power the unit. Because these Class 755s are bi-mode, they'll be able to power-up to the OHLE (overhead wires) where provided, otherwise they'll be diesel powered. (C) Greater Anglia.
Greater Anglia added:
The shells were manufactured by Stadler at their factory in Hungary and have been transported to its Bussnang factory in Switzerland where they will now be fitted with seats, lighting and other electrical equipment, air conditioning systems, wifi, plug and USB sockets and large picture windows.
As other carriages are completed, they will gradually be grouped together to form entire trains together with the bogies.
Greater Anglia is spending £1.4 billion on 169 new trains - a total of 1,043 new carriages. All of the new trains will have air conditioning, USB and plug points and free fast wifi.
In addition to this, 20 Class 745 units are also being built by STADLER:
- 10 for Intercity Norwich-London services (745001-010)
- 10 for Stansted Express, replacing the 379 units (745101-110).
These will be 12-carriage units, a mock-up is shown below. As you can see, these units host 2 First Class coaches, a bike storage bay, a wheelchair bay, and 1-door per-side per-carriage.
In addition, 660 carriages are being built in Derby by Bombardier. They're the Aventra Units (as seen below) which is the same type of stock being manufactured for the Cross-Rail / TFL-Rail Elizabeth Line.
These units will have 2 by 2 seating, and 2 by 3 seating as well. Onboard facilities include air-conditioning units, plug/usb sockets, free/fast WiFi, seat back tables, accessible DDA toilets, and underfloor heating.
There will also be no doors in the carriage vestibule; you can walk (and see) from one end of the train to the other without passing through any doors, just like on the new S-Stock on the Underground.
Also not forgetting the Information System onboard the train. As well as new and improved automated announcements, the trains will also feature live information screens. This will inckude: the status of whether there's a good service, delays or disruption on the network; where there are less busy areas onboard the train (sensors in the bogie will work out the weight on the train to determine how many passengers are in each carriage).
These Aventra units will replace the class 317, 321 and 360 stock currently on the Greater Anglia West Anglia and Southend, Ipswich, Colchester and Clacton lines. 660 carriages will form new 8-car and 10-car units.
These units will have 2 by 2 seating, and 2 by 3 seating as well. Onboard facilities include air-conditioning units, plug/usb sockets, free/fast WiFi, seat back tables, accessible DDA toilets, and underfloor heating.
There will also be no doors in the carriage vestibule; you can walk (and see) from one end of the train to the other without passing through any doors, just like on the new S-Stock on the Underground.
Also not forgetting the Information System onboard the train. As well as new and improved automated announcements, the trains will also feature live information screens. This will inckude: the status of whether there's a good service, delays or disruption on the network; where there are less busy areas onboard the train (sensors in the bogie will work out the weight on the train to determine how many passengers are in each carriage).
These Aventra units will replace the class 317, 321 and 360 stock currently on the Greater Anglia West Anglia and Southend, Ipswich, Colchester and Clacton lines. 660 carriages will form new 8-car and 10-car units.
Also in Anglia, Network Rail will begin upgrades on the Norwich to Great Yarmouth / Lowestoft branch on 10th Feb 2018, as part of a £68 million investment.
Network Rail added: A total of 66 new colour light LED signals, 22 power operated points and a remote computer-based signalling control system will replace levers and physical operations, providing safer and more reliable journeys for passengers.
As part of the work, four level crossings will be closed temporarily on various days in the run up to and during the work as changes are made to bring them up to modern safety standards, diversions will be in place.
Level crossings that are currently operated by a crossing keeper will be replaced with a modern barrier type remotely controlled by a signaller using CCTV cameras.
