First look at progress on Greater Anglia’s ‘720s’

By Richard Clinnick
|
21 February 2018
News

Construction of the Greater Anglia Class 720 electric multiple unit fleet is under way at Derby Litchurch Lane.

The driver’s cab, carriage sides and windows for the first vehicle were revealed by the operator on February 20.

Bombardier is building 665 vehicles for GA, with the first ‘720’ due for delivery this autumn and due in traffic in March 2019. They will be formed into 22 ten-coach and 89 five-coach EMUs, and used on suburban trains from London Liverpool Street, as well as serving the West Anglia Main Line to Cambridge, Ely and Kings Lynn, and the Great Eastern Main Line to Norwich.

They will have a mixture of 2+2 and 3+2 seating, all of which feature lumbar support.

GA said on February 20: “The exact specification of the interior has not yet been signed off, following a public consultation where over 1,000 people took part.”

More articles on:

Author: Richard Clinnick

Head of News (Print and Digital)

[email protected]

Our Head of News, Richard joined RAIL in 2005 from local press, where he had been working since 2002. He covers all aspects of news for the magazine and website, specialising in operations and rolling stock.

Comments (1)

Login to comment

Comments

AndrewJGwilt1989 - 21/02/2018 23:45

It’s coming along very nicely. Can’t wait to see them in service from next year.
- 0
- 1
- AndrewJGwilt1989 - 22/02/2018 16:59
  
  Greater Anglia could retain some of the Renatus Class 321's to use them on Wickford-Southminster "Crouch Valley" line as the bay platforms at Wickford may not be usable for a 5-Car Class 720 train to terminate at Wickford because platforms 1 & 4 are short platforms. Unless Network Rail can extend the 2 bay platforms to allow 5-Car trains to use platforms 1 & 4 at Wickford. As platforms 2 & 3 are longer enough to accommodate 5 & 10 car Class 720 trains.
  0
  
  0
- AndrewJGwilt1989 - 23/02/2018 01:35
  
  Also the Class 153’s and Class 156’s might be transferred to East Midlands Trains or Northern or GWR. Class 170’s could be cascades to Crosscountry or Northern or TPE. Class 360’s could be cascaded to Northern to replace the Class 321’s and Class 322’s used on Leeds-Doncaster and West Yorkshire (Leeds suburban) services along with Heathrow Connect Class 360/2’s that could also be cascaded. And Class 379’s could be cascaded to West Midlands Trains to replace the Class 323’s used on the City Line, Chase Line and across the Birmingham area. Or to replace the ScotRail Class 318’s on the Strathclyde area to/from Glasgow Central and to work alongside the Class 385’s and Class 380’s.
  0
  
  0