Greater Anglia's new trains have now travelled over 15 million miles, which is the equivalent of making 31 return trips to the moon.
The company is replacing every single train on its network. It has continued to do so throughout the pandemic, and now has 102 new trains in its fleet, including 32 being delivered by Alstom in 2021. To make way for the state-of-the-art modern trains, 86 old trains were retired in 2021.
Every route on the Greater Anglia network now has new trains, except Kings Lynn to London Liverpool Street where they will be introduced next year. In 2021, the new trains were introduced to the lines between London Liverpool Street and Clacton-on-Sea, Colchester Town, Ipswich, Harwich, Cambridge, and Hertford East, and between Stratford and Meridian Water.
All the new trains are longer and have more seats than the ones they replaced. They have plug and USB points, fast free Wi-Fi, improved accessibility features including an accessible toilet on every train, dedicated cycle spaces, and better passenger information, including screens that show which part of the train has more seats available. If all the new trains were lined up one after the other, they would stretch about eight miles, the same distance as from Tower Bridge to Putney Bridge on the River Thames.
The new trains are lighter and more aerodynamic, making them more energy-efficient, and are contributing to the company's carbon-reduction target with regenerative braking which harnesses energy produced by braking and returns it to the power network and intelligent computer systems that save energy.
Martin Beable, Greater Anglia's engineering director, said: “Our new trains are making a big difference to customers' journeys. The trains glide from one destination to the next and passengers on board are able to enjoy all the mod cons modern travellers expect.
“It has been challenging at times during the past 12 months, but we're really pleased to have got new trains on every route on our network this year.
“We're looking forward to bringing even more new trains onto the network next year.”
Routes exclusively served by the new trains are between Norwich, Lowestoft, Cambridge/Stansted, Sheringham, and Great Yarmouth; Ipswich, Felixstowe, Lowestoft, Cambridge and Peterborough; Marks Tey, and Sudbury; London and Stansted Airport; and the Intercity route between Norwich and London Liverpool Street, calling at Diss, Stowmarket, Ipswich, Manningtree, Colchester, Chelmsford, and Stratford.
A further 44 Class 720/1 5-Car Aventra units are on order that Greater Anglia have ordered 133 Class 720 rolling stocks to replace the entire older ageing Class 317 and Class 321 rolling stocks. And the Class 379 Electrostar units to be moved for storage or cascaded elsewhere.