Oyster Pay As You Go To Be Extended

From 2 January 2010 all National Express East Anglia stations within the Greater London area (zones 1-6) will accept Oyster pay as you go cards. On the Great Eastern line this means all stations from Harold Wood into Liverpool Street.

NXEA Vision For Rail Services Between London and Norwich

National Express East Anglia has set out its vision of services on the London to Norwich mainline. Speaking at the conference Shaping Norfolk's Future, NXEA's managing director Andrew Chivers highlighted the three main areas to be addressed: Quicker journey times between Norwich and London with the fastest service taking only 1 hour 30 mins; new Inter-City trains; and further improvements to the railway infrastructure, including tracks and signalling.

Ironically some of the improvements, such as new trains, will come into service beyond the end of the current franchise in 2011 which may see another operator running the service. However, the planning does need to start now. In the short term, the widely publicised increase in capacity on commuter routes will continue with the ongoing addition of 'hand me down' trains to the Class 321 fleet enabling many services to be lengthened. NXEA will also be looking, at last, to installing WiFi services on their Inter City fleet.

The time taken by London - Norwich trains at the moment is dictated by many things: Busy commuter routes into London hindered by there only being four tracks as far as Shenfield; Very few passing loops (Places for trains to pass) beyond Shenfield; Speeds limited to a maximum of 100mph; the number of station stops made on each journey. To achieve the goal of a 1 hour 30 min journey between Norwich and London some of the above, if not all, will need to be addressed.

New trains for the London - Norwich route will be a very welcome change to the tradition on this line of taking elderly, second hand trains off somebody else's hands.

Changes to the infrastructure will take considerably longer to implement but may include a passing loop at the new station proposed near Boreham and even extending four tracks beyond Shenfield, possibly as part of the CrossRail project.

Of concern to Manningtree passengers is the possibility of fewer Inter City trains stopping here to improve overall journey times and as such the MRUA will be monitoring developments closely.

Government Changes Lead To Passengers Paying More

In the week that next year's fare increases are announced across the country the Campaign For Better Transport has highlighted the fact in a report that passengers are actually paying considerably more as a consequence of changes to the rules regarding fare increases.

Traditionally, regulated fare increases were capped at the Retail Price Index (RPI) minus 1. However in 2003 the government changed this to RPI plus 1. This was done as part of the government desire to have rail passengers pay a greater share of the costs of the rail network.

As a result of this change to the rules passengers in Manningtree are paying considerably more. Specifically, the annual season ticket from Manningtree to London at £4,400 is £570 more than it would have been under the previous rules.

NXEA Among The Worst For Customer Satisfaction

In the latest government rail review National Express East Anglia scored just 61% for customer satisfaction placing it 14th out of 18 operators nationally. London Midland, First Capital Connect, Northern Rail and London Overground are the only operators to score lower.

Somewhat ironically National Express East Coast, the franchise taken over by the government at the weekend, came top with a score of 78%.

National Express To Freeze Unregulated Fares

National Express East Anglia will be freezing all unregulated fares in the new year. The national average for fare increases is 1.1%

Regulated fares such as season tickets will reduce by 0.4%

Adonis Critical Of NX Retaining Franchise

Transport Secretary, Lord Adonis has said it is "unacceptable" for National Express to retain its remaining franchises having given up the East Coast main line at the weekend.

Regarding NXEA and C2C National Express said it "continued to meet all its contractual obligations for the East Anglia and C2C franchises". However, Lord Adonis said in a BBC interview "I regard it as unacceptable and not the way to treat the government that they seek to give up their loss-making franchise.... but keep the ones that are profitable."

Unregulated Fares To Increase by Average of 1.1%

The Association Of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) has announced that unregulated fares such as cheap day returns are to increase by an average of 1.1% in the new year. This is the lowest increase since privatisation.

Regulated tickets such as season tickets are set to decrease by 0.4% as a consequence of these prices being tied to the RPI which has fallen.