Greater Anglia at Future Cities Forum
We are delighted that Greater Anglia's Head of Corporate Affairs, Jonathan Denby, will be contrbuting at our November forum at Newnham College, Cambridge, where upgrading transport infrastructure will be high on the agenda as we debate how to sustain the global success of 'science cities' such as Oxford and Cambridge.
Jonathan has undertaken a number of senior roles in the rail industry, notably leading the successful bid that led to the launch of the direct Norwich to Cambridge service in 2002, the introduction of hourly services between Ipswich and Lowestoft and early provision of wifi facilities on intercity trains between Norwich and London. He also played a pivotal role in the creation of the East Anglian Rail Prospectus and the stakeholder alliance that have helped to secure major regional rail service improvements, including a complete fleet of new trains in the Greater Anglia franchise.
The railway company is introducing some of the first trains in the UK to be financed with long-term investment from pension funds and insurance companies through Rock Rail East Anglia, a joint venture between Rock Rail, Aberdeen Standard Investments and GLIL Infrastructure, as part of a £1.4 billion investment programme which sees all the company's trains replaced with brand new ones.
Swiss company Stadler is supplying 58 trains - 38 bi-mode trains for regional routes (including the Cambridge to Ipswich and Cambridge to Norwich routes), ten electric trains for the intercity route between Norwich and London Liverpool Street and another ten electric trains for the Stansted Express service between London Liverpool Street and Stansted Airport.
Greater Anglia is also getting a further 111 electric commuter trains from Bombardier, procured by Angel Trains, which will run into Liverpool Street from Cambridge, Hertfordshire, Essex and Suffolk.
Mark Swindell, Chief Executive Officer at Rock Rail said ' The long term highly competitive funding from our pension fund and insurance company partners enables greatly enhanced value for money to passengers over the life of the trains along with significant improvements in the travel experiences for people of East Anglia.
Rail Minister, Chris Heaton-Harris said 'It's exciting to see the launch of brand new trains on the Cambridge-Norwich line, bringing tangible benefits including improved Wi-Fi and better accessibility to a huge number of passengers.
'A transformation for rail users in East Anglia is firmly underway, with greener, cleaner journeys and a more comfortable and reliable service for those who use the line regularly.'