Train operating company, Greater Anglia, has announced that work on their brand new commuter trains is about to enter the full assembly stage.
The trains are being built at the Bombardier train factory, in Derby. The team is getting ready for the production line which will soon start assembling the 111 brand new trains
Bombardier are building 665 new carriages which will form 22 ten-carriage trains and 89 five-carriage trains. The new trains will start to come into service in 2019.
Each train will have air conditioning, plug sockets, as well as USB points and fast free WiFi. Underfloor heating and accessible toilets are also being fitted to the trains.
The Bombardier trains will run on routes into London Liverpool Street from Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and Hertfordshire.
The train operating company is spending £1.4 billion on new trains. £900 million of this is for the Bombardier trains.
What did the officials say?
Greater Anglia Managing Director Jamie Burles said: “It's so exciting to see the new trains beginning to take shape. These are a vital part of the transformation of the railway in East Anglia. It's really possible now to imagine the huge difference these trains will make to our customers, making their journeys much more comfortable.”
Alan Fravolini, Bombardier's Greater Anglia Project Director, said: “It's great to be starting full production of our new Aventra trains that will help transform journeys for Greater Anglia passengers; and all designed and built in Britain.”
- Visit the Greater Anglia website
For more information
Greater Anglia could re-instate some of the Class 321’s “Renatus” and to use them on branch lines in Essex such as Wickford-Southminster, Colchester-Walton-on-the-Naze and Manningtree-Harwich Town. As the new trains will be operated on other services such as the West Anglia services, London-Norwich stopper and Essex Commuter services.