New trains start passenger service on Ipswich-Lowestoft route

Brand new longer trains with more seats entered passenger service on one of Greater Anglia’s fastest growing routes on Monday 2 December.

Two of Greater Anglia’s new state-of-the-art Swiss-built trains were put in service on the Ipswich-Lowestoft line, which in the last year has seen a four per cent growth in passenger journeys, with just over 725,000 passenger journeys a year

New three and four carriage trains are replacing the existing one, two and three carriage trains which currently run on the route.

The new trains have more seats, plug and USB sockets, free fast wifi, air conditioning, better passenger information screens and improved accessibility features.

They are powered by diesel and electricity, and are much greener than the existing diesel trains, with lower emissions, and modern brakes which release less brake dust into the environment.

In the last four weeks, Greater Anglia has introduced new four-carriage trains on the Norwich-Sheringham, Ipswich-Felixstowe and Ipswich-Cambridge routes.

They are also in service on the Norwich-Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft and Cambridge routes.

On Thursday last week (28 November) the first of Greater Anglia’s new three-carriage trains went into passenger service, on the Ipswich-Felixstowe line.

Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia managing director, said: “We are seeing increasing numbers of people use our services on route between Ipswich and Lowestoft, so it’s brilliant that we’re now able to run our new longer trains on this line.

“The new trains should make a big difference to customers’ journeys – with more seats and all the mod-cons people expect of a 21st-century train.

“This route is important for customers travelling for business, leisure and education, and we’re confident the new trains will be a big boost to the area.”

Martino Celeghini, technical project manager at Stadler, said: “It is great to see more and more bi-modes enter passenger service, and we are working closely with our client, Greater Anglia, to release trains on to the network as efficiently as possible.

“Designed for comfort and style, they are technologically-sophisticated, environmentally-friendly and very safe. We are confident they will go down well with the travelling public in East Anglia.”

Greater Anglia is replacing every single train on its network with brand new trains. The roll-out started in July this year on regional routes.

The train company is getting 58 trains from Stadler, including 38 bi-mode trains and 20 electric trains – ten for the intercity route between Norwich and London and ten for the Stansted Express route.

Safety and performance tests are being carried out on the Stadler electric trains on both the Norwich - London and Stansted Airport - London routes.

A total of 111 trains are being made by UK train manufacturer Bombardier, who have now made over 20 of Greater Anglia’s new electric commuter trains which will run on routes between Liverpool Street and Essex, Ipswich, Cambridge and Hertfordshire.

The bi-mode trains are part of a £600m investment in new Stadler trains for the region which have been financed by Rock Rail East Anglia and will be leased to Greater Anglia for the life of the franchise.

Here's what passengers thought of the new trains:

Below: The new train at Lowestoft