All change on the Greater Anglia line

Greater Anglia, who operate the London Liverpool Street to Southend Victoria and Southminster line, are getting brand new trains by the end of this year, replacing all of the old trains that are currently running at the moment.

The £1.5 billion investment in 169 brand new trains and 1043 carriages in total, will see every train fitted with free Wi-Fi, at-seat plug and USB points, air conditioning, state of the art passenger information screens and bright new carriages with new comfortable seats.

These new trains were built in Switzerland and are now being tested on the Greater Angila line near Norwich, before going into passenger service.

The Class 321, which is one of the old Greater Anglia trains, have been carrying passengers in service for nearly 30 years, but these trains often have to be repaired and taken out of service.

The overhead wires are also being replaced from Shenfield all the way to Southend Victoria as they are over 60 years old. Rail replacement bus services were operating on the entire Southend Victoria line. This investment replacing the overhead wires costed £46 million.

Southend Victoria in the 2017/2018 year had 2.097 million passengers getting on one of their trains in total, whilst in 2016 there was 1.878 million passengers a year.

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