NXEA gets Electrostars

As reported last month, National Express East Anglia (NXEA) have officially announced that they are getting Electrostar to increase capacity on their routes. The new for car units will be used mainly on the Stansted Express route from London Liverpool Street. These will then display Class 321 EMU's to increase train length across the NXEA network. Longer trains will operate on routes from Norwich, Ipswich, Clacton, Colchester, Chelmsford and Southend to London with two 'Metro' services from Gidea Park to Liverpool Street on the Great Eastern routes. On the West Anglia routes longer trains will be provided on the West Anglia routes from London to Cambridge, Bishops Stortford, Harlow, Cheshunt, Enfield and Chingford. Stansted Airport Limited is also going to lengthen the platforms at Stansted Airport station to cope with longer trains with Network Rail doing other station and infrastructure works.

The trains were orders with the view that the peak would see 10,600 passengers arrive at Liverpool Street with a seating capacity of 10,913 in the three peak hours from 7am until 10am. The peak hour from 8am to 9am sees 4,900 commuters arrive with 3,229 seats on offer. NXEA is going to publish more details this month about how it is going to address this issue and the changes the new trains will bring. NXEA is looking at changing services on the Suffolk line (this runs from Lowestoft and Peterborough to Ipswich) that will require a change to the Service Level Commitment (SLC) in the NXEA franchise which is going to be consulting the affected stakeholders.

The full Bombardier press release

Bombardier Wins a 188 Million Euro Order from National Express in the UK for the Supply and Maintenance of 120 ELECTROSTAR Vehicles

April 2, 2009 — Berlin
Transportation

The Award-winning ELECTROSTAR Train, One of the Most Successful EMU's in the UK Market, Enables Even More People to Travel in Comfort and in an Environmentally-friendly Manner

Bombardier Transportation has signed an order with Lloyds TSB and London Eastern Railways, a subsidiary of National Express, for 30 four-car BOMBARDIER ELECTROSTAR Electrical Multiple Unit (EMU) trains plus a three year maintenance agreement. The order value is approximately 188 million euros ($249 million US, £173 million). The new EMUs will operate on the Stansted Express services between Stansted Airport and London city. The award of the contract is part of the UK’s Department for Transport (DfT) campaign to ease over-crowding on the rail network in the south of England.

The new ELECTROSTAR trains are designed for service speeds of up to 160 km/h and are equipped with large luggage racks, saloon air conditioning, comprehensive CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) coverage for greater passenger security, and a WiFi system to enhance the level of passenger communication and information to and from the trains. The units will also feature the renowned and sophisticated BOMBARDIER MITRAC propulsion and controls system to recover and feed back energy while breaking.

All 120 coaches will be delivered between March and June 2011. The new ELECTROSTAR fleet will replace the older Class 317 fleet. Bombardier will maintain the fleet using the operator’s Maintenance Depot at Ilford.

Commenting on the order, Colin Walton, Chairman and Chief Country Representative, Bombardier Transportation UK, said: "We are extremely pleased that our ELECTROSTAR trains have been chosen to welcome visitors arriving into the UK via Stansted Airport. The award-winning ELECTROSTAR is the ideal EMU choice for UK customers, a product with a proven pedigree of high reliability, low maintenance requirements and all round train performance. This order further helps cement our successful, long-term relationship with our customer, National Express.”

Bombardier’s Derby site will be responsible for the vehicle manufacture, project management, engineering and testing.

The award winning ELECTROSTAR train is a well proven product with over 1,600 cars already in service with three UK operators, c2c, Southeastern and Southern. ELECTROSTAR units were also ordered in 2006 by Transport for London for the ’London Overground’ services. The new Gautrain railway in South Africa will also operate ELECTROSTAR trains. L