Greater Anglia marks the 5th anniversary of its first FLIRT in passenger service

On 29 July 2024, Greater Anglia (GA) has marked the 5th anniversary of its first new train entering passenger service. Monday 29th July 2019 saw the first of GA’s brand new, Stadler-built, bi-mode trains in operation on the 07.47 from Lowestoft to Norwich. It marked the start of a new era for rail travel in East Anglia and the beginning of a positive transformation in the service provided for customers and communities across the GA network, which now sees all GA services in the region operated by new trains.

Passengers are benefitting from greater comfort, increased seating capacity, better accessibility, and other features, such as plug/USB points and fast, free wi-fi. They’ve also helped GA deliver record-breaking punctuality and reliability, with Greater Anglia consistently the best-performing train operator in the UK, and timetable improvements on a number of its routes.

To celebrate the anniversary of the beginning of this major upgrade for train services in the region, GA invited stakeholders and media representatives to an event which started at Norwich station and included a special trip to Lowestoft and back on one of its bi-mode trains (in fact the specific train that operated the first service, four-car Class 755 FLIRT, number 755 410).

At Lowestoft there were speeches from representatives from Greater Anglia, Stadler, who built and maintain the bi-mode trains, and Rock Rail who own them, along with refreshments and photographs. The special trip then returned from Lowestoft to Norwich. Key achievements linked to the introduction of new trains on Greater Anglia services across East Anglia include:

- All Greater Anglia services now operated by new trains.
- Greater Anglia consistently the best-performing train operator in the UK with annual performance over 94.3 % on both the Public Performance Measure (arrival at destination within 5 minutes of time) and the Time to 3 (arrival at every station served within 3 minutes of time) and 86 % on the On Time measure - the best results of any UK operator in each case.
- A number of regional routes - specifically the lines from Norwich to Sheringham, Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft and Marks Tey to Sudbury - have annual punctuality of over 96.5 %.
- Customer numbers recovering well across the region, as passengers see the benefits of new trains.
- Major accessibility improvements - especially on regional, Intercity and Stansted Express routes, where the “level boarding” option provided by Stadler-built trains with low floors and retractable steps have set a new benchmark for accessible rail travel in the UK.
- More comfortable journeys with nice seats, bright, air-conditioned interiors, plug/USB points and fast free wi-fi.
- Increased seating capacity on all routes, including on three- and four-car FLIRTs on regional routes which were mostly operated with 1 or 2 carriage trains before.
- Journey times on some routes reduced - especially intercity services which are now mostly 6 or 7 minutes quicker.
- Timetable improvements, such as Norwich to Stansted Airport direct services, more frequent Sunday services on many regional routes and some later last evening trains.
- Greater Anglia’s fleet of bi-mode, intercity and Stansted Express trains have now collectively travelled over 33 million miles.

Matthew Allen, Chief Investment Officer at Rock Rail, added: “We are delighted to see first-hand the transformation of rail services in East Anglia which has been achieved as a direct result of the Stadler FLIRTs introduced by Greater Anglia and Rock Rail. We look forward to working with Stadler and Greater Anglia to build on the successful introduction of these trains, continuing to grow the industry leading performance, and further enhancing the customer experience throughout the life of the fleet. These state-of-the-art trains for Greater Anglia are financed through public sector and private sector pension funds and insurance companies. This long term investment has already delivered significant benefits for passengers and the environment over the first 5 years of the trains being in operation.”