Greater Anglia will introduce Bombardier-built five-car Class 720 electric multiple units from March next year.
According to Network Rail’s Strategic Business Plan for the Anglia Region, the five-car EMUs will be introduced initially on the Great Eastern Main Line, followed by ten-car ‘720s’ on the West Anglia Main Line the following month. GA has 89 five-car and 22 ten-car Class 720s on order.
These will be followed in late April by the first Stadler EMUs entering passenger traffic, likely also on the GEML.
In May 2019, the first Stadler bi-mode units will enter traffic. GA has yet to confirm where these will run first.
A timetable rewrite is planned for December next year, to take advantage of the infrastructure upgrades in Anglia and delivery of the new trains.
The Strategic Business Plan states that all of GA’s new fleet will be accepted by March 2020, and that the final members of the existing GA fleet will be withdrawn by August 31 2020. The final trains to go are expected to be the 30 Class 379s in use on the West Anglian and Stansted Express routes.
GA has 1,043 new vehicles on order, split into 169 new trains. This allows the operator to replace its entire fleet.
FrankH - 19/02/2018 15:12
13 months is a long time to go. Anything could happen to delay things and usually does in this country.