Department for Transport

East Anglian Rail Service improvements - Correction
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date 2 Apr 2009 15:11
source Department for Transport
type Press release

note DEPARTMENT FOR TRANSPORT News Release (043) issued by COI News Distribution Service on 2 April 2009

CORRECTED VERSION

Jobs will be created or safeguarded and rail travel in East Anglia will be improved thanks to a new agreement between the Department for Transport and National Express East Anglia (NXEA), Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon announced today.

Government funding is being used to allow NXEA to increase their fleet by 188 more carriages, of which 120 will be newly built by train manufacturer Bombardier Transportation UK Ltd, safeguarding jobs at their Derby plant.

Clacton Depot in Essex is being brought back into use as a maintenance facility to cope with the enlarged fleet. Altogether, NXEA is expected to take on more than 100 additional staff whilst the infrastructure improvements to support longer trains will also help to safeguard jobs with Network Rail.

Geoff Hoon said:

"This is one of the biggest upgrades to an existing franchise since rail privatisation and is a mark of our continued commitment to invest in long term projects to improve the railways.

"This will be of major benefit to passengers in terms of reducing over-crowding, while Bombardier's success will help safeguard UK manufacturing jobs and the expansion of the fleet will create welcomed job opportunities with NXEA."

The 188 carriages, representing a 17 per cent increase in the NXEA fleet, will be introduced on the network to boost the Stansted Express route, and commuter services in and out of London Liverpool Street.

The first additional capacity will be introduced in December 2009 and, once all improvements are in place by December 2011, approximately 11,000 extra seats will be provided into Liverpool Street in the three hour morning peak, significantly reducing the level of crowding. The additional trains will also help provide capacity for the London Olympics at Stratford in 2012.

An order worth approximately £155m for 120 new carriages from Derby based train manufacturer Bombardier is at the heart of the improved services. These new trains will principally be used on the Stansted Express services, with the fleet currently on that route re-deployed elsewhere to provide longer trains. The new trains will also provide some commuter services from Cambridge. A further 68 carriages will be added to the fleet from the London Midland franchise.

In addition to the new carriages NXEA will receive Government funding to expand the car parks at four stations and install two additional carriage washing machines.

Network Rail is committed to undertaking a programme of platform lengthening and other infrastructure works to enable the plan to be implemented, whilst Stansted Airport Ltd is committed to fund the lengthening of the platform at Stansted Airport station.

Notes to Editors




1. The White Paper 'Delivering a Sustainable Railway' (July 2007) committed the DfT to fund the provision of additional capacity to accommodate forecast additional demand into key London termini and other cities. These were included in the High Level Output Specification (HLOS) which the Government and the rail industry are to meet in Control Period 4 (CP4) from April 2009 to March 2014.

2. For London Liverpool Street, forecast additional demand to be accommodated was 10,600 for the morning peak three hours and 4,900 for the high peak hour.

3. As a result of this agreement longer peak trains will be provided on the West Anglia routes to and from Cambridge, Bishops Stortford, Harlow, Cheshunt, Enfield and Chingford to London as well as on the Stansted Express services.

4. On the Great Eastern routes from Norwich, Ipswich, Clacton, Colchester, Chelmsford and Southend to London there will be longer peak trains, and a small number of additional trains, including two 'Metro' services from Gidea Park to Liverpool Street.

5. NXEA will publish a briefing document giving more details about the changes later in April.

6. NXEA wishes to implement a scheme involving changes to the services on the East Suffolk line from Lowestoft and Peterborough to Ipswich line. These changes would require alterations to the Service Level Commitment (SLC) upon which NXEA will undertake consultation with all Relevant Stakeholders.

7. Network Rail is committed to undertaking a programme of platform lengthening and other infrastructure works to enable the plan to be implemented, whilst Stansted Airport Ltd is committed fund the lengthening of the platform at Stansted Airport station.

8. The planned changes are currently expected to provide 10,912 seats into Liverpool Street in the morning peak three hours (from 07.00 - 09.59) and 3,229 seats in the busiest peak hour (from 08.00 - 08.59).

Public Enquiries: 020 7944 8300
Department for Transport Website: http://www.dft.gov.uk

Railhub Archive ::: 2009-04-02 DfT-002