New Anglia franchise: operator relishing the challenge

By Richard Clinnick
|
26 October 2016
News

As he helped launch the new nine-year Anglia franchise at London Liverpool Street on October 17, Greater Anglia Managing Director Jamie Burles said there was a huge weight of responsibility to “get it right”.

Abellio won the long-term GA franchise in August. The deal includes £1.4 billion of new trains in a complete fleet replacement (RAIL 807), and the operator must pay £3.7bn in premium payments by the end of the franchise in 2025.

Burles was MD during the last Direct Award in Anglia, and told RAIL: “We literally couldn’t believe that the Department backed us.”

He paid tribute to the work carried out by local campaign groups, including the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership, which Abellio supported: “We’ve played a significant role in promoting a long-term strategy. That approach provided a clear approach which has provided much of the planned transformation.”

For much more on the franchise launch, read RAIL 812, published today (October 26).
For an in-depth interview with Jamie Burles, read upcoming editions of RAIL.

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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.

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Andrewjgwilt1989 - 27/10/2016 01:19

Can't wait to see new trains to be delivered in 3 years time. Could come sooner than expected with Bombardier to build the Aventra EMU (Electric Multiple Unit) and Stadler to build the new Flirt trains that will be Electro-Diesel Multiple Unit (EDMU) which is the same as Bi-Mode trains and similar to DEMU (Diesel-Electro Multiple Unit). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electro-diesel_multiple_unit
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Jason Leyton networker fan - 27/10/2016 10:59

But does it really have to be built by foreign countries? Why can't we build stuff like we use to in the old days?
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- BigTone - 27/10/2016 12:14
  
  Several reasons Jason, Firstly the tender has to be offered E.U. wide, Until Brexit happens, this will continue. Secondly, apart from Derby, they're all shut down pretty well
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  - David - 28/10/2016 09:52
    
    Don't think that brexit will change things. We still want to trade with the EU, no?
    
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    - BigTone - 28/10/2016 12:04
      
      Trade, yes. Ruled by? IMHO no.
      
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      - David - 29/10/2016 14:44
        
        We never were "ruled by" the EU, in fact, we had a rather large say in how it was run.
        
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- Andrewjgwilt1989 - 29/10/2016 20:03
  
  I actually agree with you Jason but the only former British train manufacturers that did built the locomotives and carriages and the trains are Metro Cammell and BREL. Which is why other train and transport manufacturers such as Bombardier (Canadian), Siemens (German), CAF (Spanish), Alstom (French), Stadler (Switz) and Hitachi (Japanese) are currently building new trains not just for the UK but also in North America, Europe, Asia and across the world as these train manufacturers are continuing to produce new trains and locomotives and to get young apprentices and other people to work for them so that more trains can be built which there are so many trains being built and are transporting not just goods but also people (passengers) who use the trains.
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  - Andrewjgwilt1989 - 29/10/2016 20:05
    
    Not to mention train companies that want new trains to keep up with the capacity and to introduce more carriages with more seats.
    
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