Greater Anglia trains clock up equivalent miles of 31 return trips to the moon

December 23, 2021

Greater Anglia’s new trains have now clocked up over 15 million miles – the equivalent of travelling to the moon and back 31 times.

The company has continued throughout the pandemic to bring new trains into passenger service as part of its mission to replace every single train on its network – and now has a total of 102 new trains in its fleet.

During 2021, the company saw a further 32 new trains make the journey from the Alstom factory in Derby to Greater Anglia’s network. There are now new trains on every route on the Greater Anglia network apart from Kings Lynn to London Liverpool Street, where they will be introduced next year. A total of 86 old trains have been retired in 2021, to make way for state-of-the-art modern trains.

All of Greater Anglia’s new trains are longer with more seats. If they 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.

Routes where Greater Anglia’s new electric commuter trains were introduced for the first time this year included 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 have plug and USB points, fast free wifi, and improved accessibility features including an accessible toilet on every train. There are also dedicated cycle spaces on each new train and better passenger information including screens which show which part of the train have more seats available.

The new trains are contributing to the company’s reduction in carbon, with many hi-tech green features including regenerative brakes which harness energy produced by braking and returns it to the power network and intelligent computer systems which save energy. The trains are lighter and more aerodynamic making them more energy efficient.

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 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 Greater Anglia’s new trains built by Swiss company Stadler 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.