Greater Anglia wins ‘most reliable train’ accolade for fourth year
November 28, 2024
Greater Anglia’s new bi-mode trains have been crowned the “most reliable train of their type” in the country in independent industry awards for the fourth year running.
Greater Anglia’s Class 755 four-carriage bi-mode trains were named the most reliable “second generation new diesel” train at the Modern Railways Fourth Friday Club Golden Spanners Awards held on 22 November, completing a hat trick of wins, after the operator’s Class 755 three-carriage bi-mode trains received the award in 2021.
The Golden Spanners Awards are made purely on the statistical reliability of every single type of train over the past 12 months up to 15 September 2024.
Those train types with the fewest faults, and are therefore the most reliable, receive the awards and, to provide a level playing field, similar types of trains are compared against each other.1
The four-carriage Class 755 trains, which operate on rural lines in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire, were named the most reliable train of their type in England, Scotland and Wales with 23,889 miles between faults.
In addition, Greater Anglia’s Class 745/1 Stansted Express trains, which operate Stansted Airport and London, as well as on some intercity services between Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester and London, and its Class 720 trains, which operate between London Liverpool Street and Southend Victoria, Southminster, Braintree, Clacton, Ipswich, Colchester Town, Cambridge and Hertford East, picked up Silver Spanner awards, meaning they are the most improved train of their type, with a 97.4% and 98.4% year-on-year improvement respectively.
Martin Beable, Managing Director, Greater Anglia, said: “Our new trains have transformed rail travel in the region, and we’re thrilled that they have been recognised again with these awards.
“This excellent result is a tribute to the work of both our teams and the teams at Alstom and Stadler who work round the clock keeping our trains running and further improving their performance.
“We are committed to maintaining these excellent performance standards, to complement the transformation in the journey experience brought by our new trains, with their greater comfort, better facilities (including plug/USB points and Wi-Fi), increased seating capacity and better accessibility.”
Paul Patrick, Managing Director, Stadler Rail Service UK, added: “We were delighted to see trains built and maintained by Stadler win not one, but two awards at this year’s Golden Spanners. The fleet that we manufactured for Greater Anglia has always been special to us. It is our first to operate on the UK mainline. These trains are FLIRTs, one of our most popular and versatile models; and we’re responsible for providing full service for them in Norwich. We’re thrilled to see them go from strength to strength, and are committed to continued partnership-working with our client, which has been critical to these trains’ success.”
Peter Broadley, Managing Director Services, UK and Ireland, for Alstom, said, “At Alstom, we take immense pride in the role these trains have played in transforming passenger services across the Greater Anglia network. The Aventra Class 720 trains – designed and built in Derby – are delivering strong performance improvements since their introduction into passenger service, as recognised by this Silver Spanner. This achievement underscores our commitment to providing sustainable, reliable and passenger-focused solutions for customers in the UK and around the world.”
Roger Ford, Modern Railways Industry & Technology Editor, who is responsible for the awards said, “The focus of the Golden Spanners has always been on improving reliability – so for two of Greater Anglia fleets to double their reliability over the last year is particularly impressive.”
The very good performance of Greater Anglia’s fleet has been a key factor in its excellent overall performance record. Greater Anglia has been the most punctual UK operator for over 18 months now, with seven routes achieving annual punctuality of over 95%.
Performance for the last 4-week period (ending 9 November 2024) saw punctuality across the Greater Anglia network averaging an impressive 94.7% – using the long-standing public performance measure (PPM), which measures arrival times at destination stations for each service.
The GA moving annual average PPM figure is now at 94.3% – continuing the historically high results being delivered by the train operator for over four years. Great Eastern services across Essex, serving destinations such as Southend, Chelmsford, Braintree, Colchester, Clacton, Harwich, and up to Ipswich in Suffolk, have an annual average of 96.0%. Rural services across Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, plus the Marks Tey to Sudbury line, are averaging 94.7% Intercity services between Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester, Chelmsford and London are averaging 94.0%. West Anglia services to destinations including Hertford East, Harlow, Bishops Stortford, Cambridge and Ely are averaging 92.9% and Stansted Express services are averaging 90.7%.
Exceptional annual results of 95.0% or over have been achieved on seven routes:
Norwich to Great Yarmouth 98.3%
Marks Tey to Sudbury 97.9%
Norwich to Lowestoft 97.3%
London to Southend Victoria 96.3%
Norwich to Sheringham 95.9%
London to Colchester/Clacton 95.7%
Ipswich to Felixstowe 95.4%
The impressive results are also evident using the more challenging “Time to 3” performance measure – which measures the arrival within 3 minutes of every single train at every single station it serves. On this measure GA’s annual performance is 94.2%.
In addition, GA has been the best performing “on time” operator in the UK on a continuous basis since April 2023, delivering the best national punctuality results for six quarters in a row.
Similarly, looking at annual performance over the last 12 months, Greater Anglia has delivered the best performance in the UK for “on time” at all stations (85.6%), “time to 3” at all stations (94.2%) and the public performance measure (94.3%), the second lowest number of cancellations (1.7%) and is joint fifth for “time to 15” at all stations (99.3%).
Traditionally, annual PPM performance results across the Greater Anglia network have tended to average between 87% and 91%, with a previous highest annual result of 92.8% in June 2013. However, over the last four years, annual performance has consistently averaged over 93% all year round – fulfilling, ahead of schedule, a commitment made by GA, when it was awarded the contract to continue operating services in the region in 2016, to increase punctuality to 93% by 2025.
The higher performance levels are due to a combination of three main factors – sustained joint work by Greater Anglia and Network Rail to improve performance standards; the better performance provided by Greater Anglia’s new trains, which have been being phased in over the last 5 years and now operate all Greater Anglia services; and work by Network Rail to improve rail infrastructure reliability.Greater Anglia <press.office@greateranglia.vuelio.co.uk>