A REFURBISHED fleet of trains will soon be taking passengers to and from London after Abellio Greater Anglia finalised a major contract for the work.
A £9.4 million overhaul of seats, tables, carpets, lighting, and even the addition of environmentally-friendly toilets, will begin next year on intercity trains running on the mainline between Norwich and London, which includes Chelmsford, Hatfield Peverel, Witham and Kelvedon.
For many the upgrade – the single biggest investment of their tenure – will represent the first visible signs of progress since the publication of the Rail Prospectus for East Anglia in 2012, which outlined a vision of future improvement of rail services across the region.
Greater Anglia's managing director Jamie Burles said: "This major refresh will deliver a significant improvement in the travelling environment for passengers on our key intercity services between Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester and London, with the first upgraded carriages due into service in the first quarter of next year.
"It is good news for customers, stakeholders and the region that this major enhancement will be delivered during our current short franchise contract to October 2016."
Set to be carried out by firm Vossloh Kiepe UK at a site in Norwich, the renovation of existing carriages will also involve repainting the entire interior saloon, LED lighting, and new plug points for charging devices.
But trains between Witham and Braintree, and Shenfield and Southminster, are not part of the current overhaul, but are included in the operator's long-term goals.
The first refurbished carriages are due to enter into service in the first quarter of 2015, with the full programme completed by the end of Abellio's current franchise in October 2016, which it is hoping to extend.
The report shows that of 21 short-term priorities outlined in the original report, "significant progress" has been achieved on 11 over the past two years.
However, "more ambitious" projects to increase line speeds and install additional track capacity to the north of Chelmsford, to complement the plans for Beaulieu Park Station, require "additional stakeholder effort" to make progress.
Head of corporate affairs at Greater Anglia, Jonathan Denby, told the Chronicle: "I think we are probably as far ahead as we could hope to be at this stage. There is definitely momentum now in a way that there wasn't three years ago, and we've got to keep that up."
Some responsibility for maintaining that momentum will now fall to Chelmsford MP Simon Burns, after he was appointed to represent Essex on the Norwich in Ninety task force, replacing Witham MP Priti Patel after her ministerial promotion.
Established by Chancellor George Osbourne in November last year, the group is charged with determining a way to speed up rail services in East Anglia by up to 25 per cent, including a way to cut journey times to London by around 30 minutes, and is set to deliver its findings soon.
Of the appointment, Mr Burns said: "As a former transport minister, I am particularly pleased to have been given this position because a lot of work needs to be done in Essex to enhance capacity on the Liverpool Street-Chelmsford- Ipswich line, to influence the tender document for the new franchise for the rail service from 2016, and to improve road infrastructure, hopefully getting, among other things, the A12 upgraded to a motorway."
To learn more on the plans of the Great Eastern Rail Campaign, which brings together stakeholders to improve rail services across the region, go to www.newanglia.co.uk/ gerailcampaign
