Greater Anglia Franchise Agreement

The Great Anglia Franchise agreement is now available to download on the Department for Transport website.

Ageing Greater Anglia Trains

The average age of trains run by Greater Anglia is now 24.72 years which is significantly higher than the national average of 17.93 years.  This puts Greater Anglia (GA) in 4th spot overall for the oldest fleet on the network.  Although GA is carrying out a deep clean of its trains as part of its franchise agreement, nobody can deny that the fleet needs some significant work carried out on it to counter the age and poor condition of the trains.

'Meet The Manager' At Liverpool Street

There will be a Meet The Manager session at Liverpool Street station this Wednesday, the 19th, from 16:30 to 18:30.  This is an opportunity for Greater Anglia customers to ask questions of the station's management team.

If you are unable to make the session but have a question you can use the Twitter hashtag #ttmga

Petition Against Fare Increases

A petition has been set up on the government's e-petition website to protest against rail fare increases.  Unfortunately the wording is not perhaps as good as it might have been but if enough people sign up for it then perhaps the government will take note.

The petition can be found here

Anger At East Anglian Rail Subsidies

An article in today's East Anglian Daily Times (EADT) highlights the extraoridinary way that passengers in this region are heavily subsidising other parts of the rail network while we endure all but the oldest trains in the country and a level of underinvestment that adversely affects the service we receive on a daily basis.

Members of the ERUF committee will be meeting Simon Burns, MP for Chelmsford and recently appointed Transport Minister, on the 10th September and this ridiculous situation will be top of the agenda.

The full story in the EADT can be found here.

"Above Inflation Rail Fare Increases Are A Tax On Rail Users"

The Essex Rail Users Federation , of which the MRUA is a member, has this morning issued the following press release:

“The new rail fare increases are grossly unfair and a tax on Essex rail users” says the Chairman of Essex Rail Users Federation, Derek Monnery.

The Rail Minister, Theresa Villiers, said on Breakfast television this morning that a 3% surcharge on fares was to be charged in January 2013 to pay for rail improvements.  However, Essex is not the beneficiary of any of the planned rail investment with all of it being spent elsewhere.   So the 3% rise is effectively a tax on rail fares. 

Even this might be tolerable if the rail service was good.  Rail passengers have persistently scored local train operators near the bottom of the national poll for rail satisfaction.   This is due to the scruffy condition of much of the rolling stock and repeated infrastructure failures causing train delays.

Derek Monnery concluded “Without serious investment in the Essex rail network a 3% surcharge on our fares is quite unjustifiable.  We are already starting to receive angry feedback from Essex rail users.” 

Buy & Print Tickets At Home

A pilot scheme has been introduced to enable passengers to purchase and print tickets at home.  The pilot will be available on the London - Norwich route, connecting stations from Harwich, connecting trains from Sheringham and connecting stations from Great Yarmouth to London.

Passengers will be able to book and pay for their tickets online and then choose to print them at home or if they prefer download them to the Greater Anglia phone app.

The pilot will be rolled out over the remainder of connecting stations into the mainline and any other routes where advanced tickets are available.

Details at www.greateranglia.co.uk