The fall and rise of Abellio Greater Anglia – Once the UK’s worst train company?

Hello & welcome to the fith and final episode of my Anglian Franchises mini-series; today I’m looking at the current Greater Anglia/East Anglia franchise operator – Greater Anglia, and how they have fallen and risen to become a great train operator (Do ensure you catch up on the previous four Anglia franchises here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF06LywT25Lb6cVOt8Idl4jrfuzTS0Szx)

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hello and welcome to the fifth and final episode of my Anglia franchises miniseries where today I’m evaluating the success of the current operator of the greater Anglia and East Anglia franchise greater Anglia and how they went from being the worst operator in the UK to the best in just 10 years in the fall and Rise of Greater Anglia now a fantastic franchise do make sure you watch the first four parts of this anglian miniseries before watching this one firstly we need to look at how the anglian rail system worked upon privatization unlike today where all services along the Great Eastern Mainline and West Anglia Mainline operated under a single franchise upon privatization in 1997 the region was split into three different franchises the inter city anglian franchise the West Anglia Great Northern franchise and the Great Eastern franchise which was merged into the greater Anglia franchise in 2004 under National Express East Anglia today as mentioned earlier we’ll look at greater Anglia the successor to the National Express franchise which ceased in 2012 in March 2011 it was announced that aello goahead and Stage Coach had been shortlisted to bid for the greater Anglia franchise with national Express not being chosen due to the company defaulting on the East Coast franchise video coming soon in October 2011 it was announced that aello had won the franchise with the company branding itself as greater Anglia greater angli began operating the whole greater angle franchise on the 5th of February 2012 on just a 2-year deal whilst the outcome of the mcnutley rail value for money study was being published greater Anglia operated the Great Eastern Mainline and the West Anglia Mainline operating from London Liverpool Street towards ronford Colchester ipswitch and Norwich the also operated to shenfield southminster brain tree Sudbury harch Walton on the na and the ronford to upminster Branch greater Anglia also operated to Stan airport Cambridge and Harford North as well as this they also operated Regional local services from East Anglia to sheringham elely peterb felixo Barry St Edmonds great yth and lowestoft as for Rolling Stock greater Anglia inherited the fleet of national Express East Anglia they inherited class 90s Mark three coaches class 153s 5 sixes 17s class 315s class 317s 321s 322s and class 360s as well as it St to express class 37 N9 due to the company being a very short franchise greater Anglia announced they weren’t planning any major Fleet changes for the time being leading to an aging Fleet becoming more unreliable and worse for passengers despite this in 2013 the class 321 owner everal unveiled a demonstration for car class 321 unit with a fully refurbished Saloon ever Schultz confirmed that they had intentions to refurbish the whole Fleet but it would cost up to 100 million to refurbish all 94 greater Anglia units £250,000 The Carriage this however was still cheaper than the1 million per Carriage price tag for brand new units the demonstration unit ran across 2013 and 14 whilst picking up passenger feedback also in November 2013 greater angler confirmed it had refurbished a single class 317 with an updated interior Saloon as well as upgraded AC motors with regenerative braking installed this came due to Greater Anglia receiving a 2-year extension until October 2016 with the Department of Transport announcing the extension in March 2013 this extension coincided with greater Anglia rebranding to aello Greater Anglia promoting the parent company as well in 2013 greater Anglia passengers signed a petition to attempt to stop greater anglia’s older trains from dumping raw sewage straight onto the tracks with the rmt and network rail endorsing the petition with the sewage Mist making Network rail staff ill eventually greater Anglia conceded with then confirming that all Mark 3es and class 156s would receive retention tanks by 2016 in 2014 despite winning operate of the year and the passengers matter Community rail award in 2013 greater Anglia were ranked the worst train operating company in a witch survey by passengers the survey which took into account 20 operators had greater Anglia bottom for customer satisfaction with a rating of just 40% to combat this greater Anglia confirmed that they would be investing 10 million for several upgrades across the network with all class 3176 having a refresh and new seat covers for 21 class 360s new ticket Gates would be installed at stations and they would hire extra Mark 3es to allow for the original sets to undergo refurbishment great Anglia also promised they would hire extra cleaning and Catering staff as well as the refresh of four waiting rooms across the network greater Anglia suggested the investment came due to their continued focus on passenger improvements and confirmed passengers were up 92% from 4 years prior although this had consequences on overcrowding in 2015 it was confirmed that the London overground would take over services from Liverpool Street to Enfield chess chingford as well as ronford to upminster Branch taking all of Greater anglia’s class 315s and some class 317s this came with greater Anglia announcing provisional plans to upgrade its services to Norwich with the services not changing much since privatization and still using old British Rail stock greater angle implied it would like to see new stock run the route eventually and confirmed intentions to reduce times from London to Norwich to minutes despite aello acknowledging the request from the councils and passengers as early as 2012 nothing had yet been done to achieve this with some suggesting the norwi and 90 scheme was more of a political thing than anything else abellia did confirm that1 million would be invested in upgrading the mree coaches as mentioned earlier with all 119 carriages refurbished at Norwich Crown Point and regaining new LED lights new carpets tables seat covers and retention tank retrofitted toilets as well as this greater angler confirmed we refreshing all 94 of its class 321s with some getting a full refurbishment through EV Schult and others getting minor refreshes paid for by aello overall though it would mean that all of the class 321s would have some sort of touchup since aello began operations in June 2015 it was announced that biders had been shortlisted for the next franchise renamed the East Anglia franchise with a bell own Stage Coach joining forces to tackle first and National Express in July great Anglia was confirmed to once again have some of the worst satisfaction levels from the national roil passenger survey with aging infrastructure to blame for the poor satisfaction leading to poor reliability as well as this in the back end of 2015 greater Anglia were forced to abandon Felix during subby services for almost 2 weeks due to excessive wheel Flats caused by leaves on the line 11 out of 26 of Greater anglia’s diesel multiple units were out of service with repairs although greater Anglia did hire some Mark 2s and class 37s from direct rail services this was not at all enough to provide full services this in turn led to the government launching a full investigation of the dubbed leafgate crisis the transport select committee suggested that networ ra and greater Anglia were at fault with both also commissioning their own reports on the two-e failure for passengers though this hugely disrupted their perceptions of aello Greater Anglia and led a huge backlash on the company despite this it was announced in August 2016 that greater Anglia had won a 9-year extension to their franchise until 2025 with several major changes coming as part of the new franchise not least the franchise name changing from greater Anglia to East Anglia although the company name remained the same the new East Anglia franchise would see the replacement of the entire existing Fleet with 191 purpose-built new multiple units by September 2020 to run on all services 133 of these were confirmed to be Bombardier Aventure units with 3 plus two seating due to the department for transport strict seating requirements being used for commuter Services out of London Liverpool Street as for the inter city stock greater Anglia confirmed they had chosen Stadler flirts with 58 of these multiple units being constructed 38 were bu mode units for deployment on Regional services in Anglia with the remaining 20 being 12 car electric multiple units deployed on the inter city routes towards Norwich greater Anglia would also refurbish some of their existing Vehicles such as the class 170s before their replacement as well as greater Anglia promised its reliability would increase to at least 92.9% with it sitting at 90% in 2016 greater Anglia would also improve its satisfaction ratings which lay at just 35% in 2016 third bottom of the pile they also promised new LCD screens at all stations with improvements at stations to car and cycle parking new ticket machines and ticket office upgrades as well as general station improvements greater Anglia also implied it wanted to see services from I switch to Peterburg via elely be UPG to hourly whose services from lowest off to London resuming for the first time since one in January 2017 aello confirmed that it had sold 40% of its stake to Japanese company mitsu the purchase which followed abellio greater Anglia dropping The abello Branding in October 2015 meant that greater Anglia Incorporated several Japanese practices into running the railway this in August boiled over onto Industrial action with its conductors going on strike following ticket office closures and Driver only operator Services promoted for great Anglia the rmt accused greater Anglia of using strikebreaking tactics by using standing conductors to ensure Services were not affected the immt argued this put passenger safety in jeopardy with the dispute only ceasing in 2018 when in July the rmt voted in favor of a deal that would keep guards on trains in 2018 the first class 745 and 755 B mode flirts had been constructed and began testing for 2019 introduction with the class 720 Adventures was slightly behind schedule but still on cause for a late 2019 introduction elsewhere in 2018 greater Anglia promised to reduce overcrowding by January 2020 with the addition of the brand new Rolling Stock we moted their stock not including first class which would enable a 20% capacity increase elsewhere greater Anglia won a golden spanner award for the class 379 units which averaged 76,000 Mi per technical issue greater Anglia also won an award for their class 19 Mark 3E hold Services also being quite reliable as well as this greater Anglia announced it was undertaking an engineering overhaul for all its class 317 Fleet due to their reliability becoming an issue during 2017 leading to many penalties issued to the company the5 million investment despite the units planned to be withdrawn was met well by passengers and improved reliability in 2019 the first class 745 inter city units arrived at Crownpoint deer in Norwich the units which were 12 cars long would replace the mark for and would have USB plug sockets at every seat air conditioning Cafe bars Wi-Fi and would allow for faster Journey times as well as importantly level boarding this coincided with the announcement from great Anglia that the norin 90 campaign would finally be going ahead by May 2019 the two return Services a day would call at less stations and allow for services to be faster this coincided with the announcement of extra summer Services between London Liverpool Street Norwich Ipswich and Colchester as well as more services to lowestoft Felix and Great Yarmouth from Norwich and ipswitch elsewhere in 2019 in February greater angliers class 156 Fleet won an award for their reliability improvements and new wheel slide protection braking system which was funded by porterbrook also on the subject of stock improvements greater Anglia confirmed that free Wi-Fi would be installed on all its older Legacy Fleet this came as greater Anglia continued to upgrade old the Rolling Stock by August 2019 the first class 755s had been put into service on the Norwich to Cambridge Services marking the beginning of the end of Greater angle’s Legacy Fleet with the 755s replacing diesel stock by the middle of 2020 despite this the class 755s and 720s weren’t seen in service until 2020 although new trains are generally not the most reliable the 755s introduction in 2019 was met with only a few teing issues with the only incident being a 755 plowing into a car near sheringham due to a barrier f despite this tragedy the units were met with positive views with the flirts being a huge upgrade to older stocks such as the 153s and 156s also a new station soam began construction on the IP switch to Peter line with a station eventually opening in 2021 on the 20th of May 2019 the first Norwich in 90 service began holded by 901 a few Norwich to London Services would now take just 90 minutes to complete with I switch to London taking just shy of an hour despite this it just shaved 12 minutes off the current time from Norwich and just 4 minutes from ipswitch so it was more of a publicity stunt than anything else as 2020 and Co came the knowledge in 90 Services were cut and the majority of services were reduced and ended early however in January 2020 the bit on line to sharing him was played by signal failures and led to a huge reliability reduction however this was improved to reach 97% by the following month also greater anglia’s managing director James burs pledged that he would would do everything he could in his power to improve reliability and punctuality with Jamie highlighting how his operator had improved hugely since 2019 following a major Improvement in infrastructure by Network rail despite issues with covid-19 greater Anglia managed to see 720s and 745s enter service with the last Mark res sets leaving service by mid 2020 also the first class 360s left service in November 2020 with them all leaving service by February 2021 helped by greater angly reducing their serves to 72% of pre-co timetables as well as this the last 379 left service by 2022 due to high leasing costs and the arrival of flirt units elsewhere greater Anglia were given an extension to their contract until September 2026 following the co direct award contract scheme in 2022 greater Anglia also confirmed all services along the west Anglia Mainline were now operated by 720s with the Legacy Fleet eventually being withdrawn by April 2023 when the last class 321 ran which coincided with greater Anglia beginning services to Kings Lin for the first time that brings us to the present day greater Anglia are now one of the most punctual operators at around 90% And now run some of the most modern stock in any Toc in February 2023 abellia was brought out by the transport UK group however due to the direct contract award they yield little power over the operations of Greater Anglia which allies on the department for transport overall then can we say greater Anglia has been a fantastic franchise or or successful fantastic is just good for alliteration well they definitely were a pretty poor operator being ranked consistently low for satisfaction running with an increasingly aging stock with poor reliability however they have turned their operations around and an allnew Fleet of modern fast and reliable units mean that greater Anglia are now hugely reliable and a very respected operator but the main question of this five episode miniseries was to determine whether the joint greater Anglia franchise was better than the free franchise prior well personally I think it is more successful some suggested that the joint franchise would not focus enough on Regional services near norch however this hasn’t been the case with new stations opened and a more frequent service operating across East Anglia the introduction of a 90-minute service to London from Norwich despite this being shed during covid showed the ambition of the joint franchise several refurbishments of Legacy Fleet as well as solid reliability and the instruction of a new Fleet including the class 379 previously suggests has been an overall success and perhaps wouldn’t have happened if the franchises weren’t combined despite this there is a case to be made that potentially the overall franchise does leave some stations behind with an hourly I switch to Peter preservice still not being established despite being put forward back in 2016 also some stations have fared worse off under National Express East Anglia and greater Anglia with some stations losing ticket offices and getting a worse service but what do you think are greater Anglia a good operator and do you think a joint franchise is better than the free franchises previously let me know in the comments below also do consider joining my channel to support me and get some cool perks such as access to private Discord channels and access to videos early special thanks to my first class member Callen Martin Bell and my business own members Anthony Harris and smudgy Cat also thanks to De Rooney for his donations and membership thanks so much for watching check out my Twitter Discord and Instagram in the links below and I’ll see you soon goodbye oh [Music]