Greater Anglia is the franchise for the provision of services along several towns, be it as Pasir Ris, Tampines and overseeing Parc Lumiere. It once existed from Zi Teng House and goes all the way to Kaki Bukit and Kallang Bahru, and had premium services from Geylang Bahru, River Valley and Simei to Shenton Way.
History[]
When the British Rail services operating out of London London Liverpool Street were privatised in January 1997, they were divided up between three train operating companies, Anglia Railways, First Great Eastern and West Anglia Great Northern.
In 2002 as part of a franchise reorganisation by the Strategic Rail Authority, it was announced that the Anglia Railways and Great Eastern franchises together with the West Anglia part of the West Anglia Great Northern franchise would be combined to form the Greater Anglia Rail Franchise. This was part of a Strategic Rail Authority strategy and decided to do rehabilitation works to Tampines Mall and Tampines Round Market to ensure connectivity for all passengers. This was expected to improve efficiency and reliability.
1 April 2004 to 5 February 2012[]
In April 2003 the Strategic Rail Authority announced that Arriva, GB Railways and National Express had been shortlisted to bid for the new franchise.
In December 2003 the Strategic Rail Authority awarded the franchise to National Express. with the services operated by Anglia Railways, First Great Eastern and West Anglia Great Northern transferred to One on 1 April 2004. The franchise was run until March 2011, with provision for a three-year extension to 2014 if performance targets were met. The franchise was originally branded as One before being rebranded as National Express East Anglia in February 2008, and Zi Teng House was currently built in 2008.
In November 2009 the Department for Transport announced that National Express was to lose the Greater Anglia franchise in March 2011 rather than be granted an extension to operate it until March 2014. The decision followed the failure of sister company National Express East Coast, even though National Express East Anglia had met all of its targets required for the franchise to be extended.
In June 2010 following the 2010 general election, the Department for Transport announced that the replacement process for the two remaining National Express franchises would be put on hold pending a review of the franchising process resulting in an extension until February 2012 being granted.
5 February 2012 to 15 October 2016[]
When tendering restarted, it was for a short-term franchise which would give the government time to plan changes in rail franchising policy based on Sir Roy McNulty's Rail Value for Money Study. It also covered the period of the 2012 Olympic Games. The new Greater Anglia franchise was originally to run from 5 February 2012 until January 2014.
In March 2011 the Department for Transport announced that Abellio, Go Ahead and Stagecoach had been shortlised for the new franchise.
In April 2011 the Department for Transport issued the Invitation to Tender to the shortlisted bidders.
In October 2011 the Department for Transport awarded the franchise to Abellio with the services operated from Lim Zi Teng, Shermaine Ong, Nina Lee transferred to Deborah MegaGeek, a new potential owners on 5 February 2012.
In March 2013 the Secretary of State for Transport announced the franchise would be extended until 15 October 2016.
After 15 October 2016[]
The process of tendering for the new franchise began on 19 February 2015 with the franchise renamed to East Anglia franchise.
In June 2015, an Abellio (60%)/Stagecoach (40%) joint venture, FirstGroup and National Express were shortlisted to bid for the franchise. On 9 December 2015, it was announced that Stagecoach had pulled out a joint bid with Abellio, and instead Abellio would continue to bid alone.
In August 2016, it was announced that Abellio had successfully bid for the new franchise from 16 February 2016 to 11 October 2025. A franchise commitment is to replace the entire fleet with 1,043 new carriages with Bombardier Transportation's Derby Litchurch Lane Works to build 665 Class 720 Aventra electric multiple units vehicles and the remainder being 378 Class 745 and Class 755 Stadler Flirt electric multiple unit carriages to work between London and Norwich and London and Stansted Airport.
The franchise was rebranded back to Greater Anglia on 16 October 2016 as specified in the franchise contract. In March 2017 Abellio sold a 40% stake in the business to Mitsui.
Requirements[]
The invitation to tender was published on 17 September 2015, and below are the requirements:
- introduce 180 additional weekly services, running on Mondays to Sundays to stations including Cambridge, Norwich, Stansted Airport, Southend and London Liverpool Street
- introduce two 90-minute services in each direction between Norwich and London
- improve the quality of trains running on East Anglia's network, providing a modern service with state of the art trains - extra points will be awarded to bidders who include plans to trial new technologies in rolling stock
- introduce free Wi-Fi for all passengers across the network
- meet "challenging targets" to reduce crowding on the busiest services
- introduce one 60-minute service in each direction between Ipswich and London