New GBR Anglia branding unveiled on trains

1 day ago

Katy Prickettand

Zoie O'Brien,at Liverpool Street Station, London

News image — Greater Anglia and c2c passengers will start to see new Great British Railways (GBR) branding on trains

Zoie O'Brien/BBC The side view of a railway carriage at Liverpool Street Station. The train is painted in bright blue with Great British Railways Anglia written in white letters under its windows. Beneath that on the edge of the body of the carriage is a line of red and white, decreasing to a point on the right. — Greater Anglia and c2c passengers will start to see new Great British Railways (GBR) branding on trains

The first GBR Anglia trains have been unveiled at Liverpool Street Station in London, nine months after Greater Anglia entered public ownership.

The Labour government has been renationalising passenger rail services and branding them Great British Railways (GBR).

GBR Anglia brings together train operators Greater Anglia and c2c, as well as track operator Network Rail Anglia, under one unified leadership team.

GBR Anglia's boss Jamie Burles said:"Effectively, if you've got track and train together, that means all of the friction between the infrastructure and the train operators, that's all gone now."

It came after the government froze ticket prices in England until March 2027, the first time in 30 years that regulated fares have not gone up.

When asked if ticket prices might go down, Burles said: "Our primary focus now is on improving the value for money of what we do."

Greater Anglia runs trains between London and Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.

Operator c2c, which was nationalised a year ago, runs rail services between south Essex and London.

Minister for Rail Lord Hendy said the new branding is "a visible sign that actually the thing is going to be run as one network".

"Three-quarters of the British public support public ownership," he said.

"What they want is consistent standards wherever they go."

Zoie O'Brien/BBC A side view of the front of a train at Liverpool Street Station, showing the driver's cab. It is painted in bright blue with GBR written in white letters to the right of the driver's door. Beyond that there is a broad stripe of red and white across the body of the train including the first double doors for passengers. It is resting on railway tracks with more empty tracks to its right. Above it is the glass and metal roof of the station. — The new livery and branding uses a red, white and blue colour scheme to mirror the union jack

Burles, GBR Anglia's managing director, said it was an exciting day for the company.

"This new livery is a visible symbol of our new joined-up approach to the railway in East Anglia," he said.

He also said the company was aiming to offer people a more reliable service by putting equipment on trains to monitor overhead lines and tracks; putting on more services for special events; and making more of its stations accessible to all users.

It was also introducing all-night services to Stansted Airport on Friday nights.

GBR will bring the running of passenger trains and infrastructure under one umbrella body, although it will have different powers in England, Wales and Scotland.

The government has previously said it will combine 17 different organisations and "cut through the frustrating bureaucracy and lack of accountability that continues to plague the railways".