Production of Greater Anglia’s new commuter trains well underway
October 16, 2019
The first 100 carriages of Greater Anglia’s new electric commuter trains have now been built.
UK manufacturer Bombardier is building 111 new 10 and five-carriage trains for Greater Anglia – 655 carriages in total – which will serve commuter lines into London Liverpool Street.
The twentieth train is now on the production line at Bombardier’s factory in Derby.
While new carriages roll off the production line, safety and performance tests are underway on built trains including tests on braking, traction and system functionality.
Bombardier has expanded the Greater Anglia team at Derby to speed up production.
The first Bombardier train is due on the Greater Anglia network later this year.
All of the new trains will be longer, with more seats, plug and USB sockets, free fast wifi, air conditioning, under-floor heating and better passenger information screens.
There will also be better accessibility features and four cycle spaces on every train.
Ian McConnell, Greater Anglia franchise and programmes director, said: “We’re looking forward to getting the first Bombardier train on our network.
“We’ve started replacing our diesel trains in the north of our network with new trains – and we know customers on the rest of the network are keen to see new trains on their routes too.
“Bombardier trains will replace all of our existing electric trains on commuter routes in Essex, Cambridge, Suffolk and Hertfordshire.”
Alan Fravolini, Bombardier project director, Greater Anglia said: “We’re really cracking on with these great new trains for Greater Anglia. Production is accelerating with a strengthened team and we are all focused on passenger service as soon as possible.”
Greater Anglia is replacing every single train on its network with 169 brand new state-of-the-art longer trains.
Bombardier is building 111 trains and the other 58 trains are coming from Swiss manufacturer Stadler.
The Bombardier trains have been procured by Angel Trains.