National Express East Anglia Train Recognized for Service

Chris Mole, who is the Transport Minister, will be joining National Express East Anglia at London Liverpool Street station on January 25^th to name a Class 321 train. This train will be called The Essex Commuter in recognition of the first stage of National Express East Anglia’s service improvement plan, which was introduced last month at the start of the current timetable.

The initial phase of the improvements have provided passengers in both North Essex and Suffolk with a total of 5,700 extra seats each day on trains that are regularly very busy on the lines between Braintreem Clacton on Sea, Colchester, Chelmsford, Harwich, Ipswich, Witham and London Liverpool Street.

At the center of the National Express East Anglia Service Improvement Plan is a major deal agreed with the Department for Transport that took place April 2009 to boost rail capacity on train services to and from London Liverpool Street. This aim is being achieved through the construction of 120 new rail carriers. It is also being done by the transfer of 68 additional modern refurbished carriages to be added to East Anglia services.

The brand new 120 carriages will be introduced on Stansted Airport and Cambridge to Liverpool Street services in 2011. However, the 68 refurbished carriages are being introduced on the Great Eastern mainline route from Suffolk and North Essex into Liverpool Street in two phases. The first phase took place on December 2009, and the second one will take place December of this year. During the next two years, passengers across Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire, and Cambridgeshire using the National Express East Anglia services will benefit from the improved plan.