Today was launch day for 'ONE', which is the brand name of the new 'Greater Anglia' train operating Franchise, this pulls together all train operators using London's Liverpool St station into the same operation, operated by National Express group. Up until yesterday trains out of Liverpool St were operated by either Anglia, Stanstead Express, WAGN or First Great Eastern. Now, they are, well, One! The new companys website is here: http://www.onerailway.co.uk/ Rail Express Magazine has a few pics of the new corporate image on their website... (No, the corporate image is NOT an april fool joke!)
Martyn- I found a map showing this operation on the web site you linked. I'm curious. If there were a map showing how they operated beforehand, perhaps I could better see how this improves service. Do you know of such a site? Boxcab E50
The colour coding on the map pretty much breaks it down, the two greens were "Anglia", they ran both the "Intercity" fast services to Norwich and the rural network that spreads out from Ipswich and Norwich. Stansted Express was just an airport shuttle and remains so. The Great Eastern network is the same as before the grouping. The West Anglia is the big change, it used to be part of WAGN (West Anglia Great Northern) http://www.wagn.co.uk/ They ran services to Cambridge and Kings Lynn from both Kings Cross and Liverpool St in London, the Kings Cross services have remained with WAGN but the Liverpool St ones have been merged into this new organisation. The theory behind it is to reduce the number of different operating companies at the London termini, so they can better allocate capacity. Liverpool St now has one operator instead of four for example. In terms of improvements, in theory capacity and decision making at the London end ought to be improved, and the rural end should benefit from being part of a wider network.
And it will make life easier for those who have to work with the operators on a daily basis. Could this be the beginning on the New BR? Multiple operators were a recipe for planning disasters!
