A new rail franchise for East Anglia promising faster journey times, more seating and free Wi-Fi on train journeys through the county has been welcomed by Chelmsford Conservatives.
The Government today (Wednesday) announced it has awarded the franchise to Abellio East Anglia to run from October 2016 until 2025.
This £1.4 billion investment aims to cut journey times by 10 percent while offering 32,000 more seats on services arriving at London Liverpool Street by 2021.
Essex rail passengers are set to benefit with new trains, more than 1,000 additional weekday services and smart ticketing on the entire network by 2019.
Improved trains and infrastructure will give the Essex economy a huge boost offering businesses a reliable and fast link with London.
Specific upgrades include:
- Upgraded trains: in the first year of the franchise 30 4-carriage electric trains will be refurbished to include air conditioning, WiFi and new seats. These will run from Southend, Braintree and Ipswich to London, providing much needed extra capacity. The remainder of the fleet will be refreshed at a cost of £10m, improving the passenger environment and reliability of the trains. 27 of the existing trains will also undergo modifications to become fully accessible to disabled customers.
- More than 70 additional carriages will be introduced in January 2017 to provide more capacity and more seats on West Anglia and Great Eastern Main Line routes.
- All stations will be refreshed or refurbished and receive a deep clean.
- Ticket machines and new digital customer information screens at every station
- Nearly 1800 additional car parking spaces across the network, and 4000 additional cycling spaces.
- All trains which operate out of London Liverpool Street will be fitted with WiFi, and those trains currently with WiFi will have the system upgraded.
- Enhanced support for the region’s highly-successful Community Rail Partnerships. Investment in our people, with 20 trainees entering the business per year, with 30 apprenticeships by 2019. We will also work with local universities to deliver graduate work experience opportunities within the business.
- £2.75m each year to spend during the franchise on further schemes to enhance the customer experience and improve the communities we serve
- A focus on innovation with a dedicated innovation fund and the establishment of an Innovation Academy.