Greater Anglia Enters Public Ownership

Greater Anglia entered public ownership at 02.00 BST today marking the end of a highly successful period under privately owned Transport UK Limited. It is the third train operating company to enter public ownership under the government’s Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act. Half of rail operators in the UK are now publicly owned.

Greater Anglia has been the most punctual operator in the UK since April 2023, with punctuality and reliability hitting historic highs. In 2012 the rail operator ranked 16th in punctuality. All rolling stock was replaced with a fleet of brand new trains, offering more seats, air conditioning, Wi-Fi, plug points and USB points. The fleet transition was completed in April 2023; the same year punctuality rose to 1st with 94% of services arriving on time.

Greater Anglia made timetable improvements including more frequent services on several routes and introduced a highly successful direct Norwich to Stansted Airport service. Norwich–London journey times were cut on average 6–7 minutes.

Accessibility was improved for wheelchair users, parents, cyclists and travellers with heavy luggage with level boarding at most stations served by its new fleet of bi-mode Stadler-built trains.

Station facilities were improved which included the installation of real-time information screen at each stationn, and integrated transport links were enhanced. GA’s highly successful station adoption scheme was rolled out to almost all stations and biodiversity was supported through the Wildlife Friendly Stations Accreditation Scheme. These improvements led to an increase in customer satisfaction, a 60% reduction in complaints, and increased revenue; in 2024 Greater Anglia was the only privately run operator to generate income for the Treasury.

During its time with Transport UK, Greater Anglia was named Passenger Operator of the Year at the National Rail Awards three time in four years. This year GA also received the equivalent “Operator of the Year” at the National Transport Awards, Rail Business Awards and Spotlight Rail Awards .

Greater Anglia joins c2c, Northern, TransPennine Express, Southeastern, LNER and South Western Railway, which are currently publicly owned.

Commenting on the upcoming transition, Martin Beable, Managing Director, Greater Anglia said:

“We are proud of the transformation we’ve delivered at Greater Anglia in recent years and we’re fully committed to maintaining those high standards as we pass into public ownership. We’re keen to keep on delivering service improvements for customers and communities.

I’d like to thank the GA team for all they’ve done to enable us to raise our service standards and deliver a better service for our passengers and stakeholders.

I’d also like to pay tribute to the Transport UK team for their key role in our success. Without their ambitious bid, their vision to achieve complete replacement of all our fleet with new trains and their excellent support, backing and input, the positive step change in services we’ve delivered would not have been possible.

We’re pleased to end the current era with Greater Anglia as one of the best train operators in the UK and look forward to building on that positive legacy under public ownership in the years ahead.”