Greater Anglia has announced that brand new trains have entered service on the Ipswich to Lowestoft route.
Two new trains were put into service on the route, which last year saw a 4% growth in passenger journeys, with 725,000 journeys a year.
New three and four carriage trains are replacing the existing one, two and three carriage trains that currently operate on the route.
The new trains have more seats, plug and USB sockets, free wifi, air conditioning, better passenger information screens, and improved accessibility.
They are powered by diesel and electricity, meaning that they are greener than the outgoing trains.
In the last four weeks, Greater Anglia has introduced new four-carriage trains on the Norwich-Sheringham, Ipswich-Felixstowe and Ipswich-Cambridge routes.
The new trains are also in service on the Norwich-Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft and Cambridge routes.
On Thursday last week, the first of the new three-carriage trains went into passenger service, on the Ipswich-Felixstowe line.
What did the officials say?
Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia managing director, said:
“We are seeing increasing numbers of people use our services on route between Ipswich and Lowestoft, so it's brilliant that we're now able to run our new longer trains on this line.
“The new trains should make a big difference to customers' journeys – with more seats and all the mod-cons people expect of a 21st-century train.
“This route is important for customers travelling for business, leisure and education, and we're confident the new trains will be a big boost to the area.”
Martino Celeghini, technical project manager at Stadler, said:
“It is great to see more and more bi-modes enter passenger service, and we are working closely with our client, Greater Anglia, to release trains on to the network as efficiently as possible.
“Designed for comfort and style, they are technologically-sophisticated, environmentally-friendly and very safe. We are confident they will go down well with the travelling public in East Anglia.”
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I travelled on one of the new trains from Norwich to Great Yarmouth at the end of November and it couldn’t be started. So the train was cancelled and had to wait for the following train. On the journey from Great Yarmouth to Norwich a few days later the train came to a halt just before Acle so that the driver could remove a swan from the track. Quite common apparently. Oh, yes the trains are quite comfortable too.
The new trains are good but they have had some issues in recent days and weeks. There has been near misses at level crossings on rural lines in Norfolk & Suffolk.