ORR stats reveal the oldest train fleets in Great Britain. Each year we publish statistics on the average age of rolling stock for each rail operator in Great Britain. The national railway fleet is comprised of around 15,300 vehicles, with 99% used by franchised operators and 1% used by non-franchised operators. Some of the oldest vehicles are the electric Class 313 vehicles, which first entered service in 1976 and are still in use. Merseyrail has run electric Class 507 trains since they first started operating passenger services, and these were built between 1978 and 1980. The newest vehicles were built in the last two years, such as Greater Anglia's new Class 720 trains and the latest operator Lumo runs Class 803 AT300 trains. In the current fleet, around three-quarters of the vehicles have been built since privatisation (1997) and just 3% were built before 1980. Over a third have been built in the last 10 years, with 2% built since the start of 2020. The average age for franchised operators has fallen from 19.7 years in March 2018, to 16.9 years in the most recent year (as of 31 March 2022). Over time some older fleets have been refurbished to increase capacity, and also to meet new accessibility standards. For non-franchised operators, the average age has fallen substantially from 17.4 years in March 2018 to 9.5 years in the latest year. All of the current rolling stock for the four non-franchised operators were built from 2000 onwards. In the latest year, Lumo had the lowest average age of 0.8 years, whilst Merseyrail had the oldest fleet with an average age of 42.6 years.
(Permalink) Greater Anglia Merseyrail ORR Train age

Abellio UKs CEO Dominic Booth is understood to be leading buyout and will help fund deal using own money. The Dutch state railway is to pull out of the UK with a management buyout of its subsidiary Abellio, which runs four rail lines and a number of London bus routes. Abellio, which for 20 years has run East Midlands Railway, Greater Anglia, Merseyrail and West Midlands Railway and employs 15,000 staff, is to be sold by the Netherlands state-run Nederlandse Spoorwegen to its UK management. The business will be operated by a new firm, to be known as Transport UK Group Limited.
(Permalink) Abellio East Midlands Railway Greater Anglia Merseyrail Transport UK Group Limited West Midlands Railway

Train operator, Greater Anglia, has launched an online virtual tour of Norwich rail station to help people travel with confidence - which is especially useful for disabled customers wanting to check how accessible their journey is.
(Permalink) Accessability Greater Anglia Norwich Virtual Tour

The Abellio-led Greater Anglia and West Midlands Trains businesses have agreed directly-awarded National Rail Contracts with the Department for Transport, ahead of the expiry of their Emergency Recovery Measures Agreement contracts on September 19.
(Permalink) Abellio Department for Transport Greater Anglia West Midlands Trains

The first of Greater Anglias brand-new trains has now arrived in the region, pulling up to Norwich by a locomotive ahead of a programme of testing around the network.
The four-carriage bi-mode Swiss train will run on regional lines across Greater Anglia has already undergone a series of tests in Europe, including braking, pantographs, noise levels, emissions, operational safety, automatic train protection systems, and testing on special curved tracks against derailment.
It will now be tested on the Greater Anglia network to ensure it passes strict regulations for carrying UK passengers.
(Permalink) Bi-mode Greater Anglia

The first of Greater Anglias (GA) refurbished Class 170 trains is to re-enter passenger service in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.
Arriva Traincare undertook the upgrade project at its Crewe facility under contract to Porterbrook Leasing, who are investing £5m into upgrading GAs eight three-carriage and four two-carriage trains operating on routes including Norwich to Cambridge, Ipswich to Cambridge, Ipswich to Lowestoft and Norwich to Lowestoft.
(Permalink) Arriva Traincare Class 170 Greater Anglia Porterbrook Leasing