Capacity cut at Greater Anglia

摘要

DfT plans to provide additional capacity at Greater Anglia under the High-Level Output Specification for Control Period 4 have been abandoned. Abellio's winning bid for the short 29-month franchise (p8) makes provision for between nine and 15 four-car Class 317 EMUs to be taken off lease. This would see capacity reduced by between 1 566 and 4 365 seats, or 3 033 and 6 180 passengers if standees are included. 'We are struggling to work out how additional rolling stock required by the DfT from December 2011 under HLOS is suddenly no longer needed on February 5 2012', one industry insider told RBI. In order to meet the growth in demand forecast for CP4, the HLOS rolling stock plan agreed between DfT and NXEA in April 2009 included the delivery of 30 new Class 379 EMUs and the transfer of 17 Class 321s from London Midland. This would deliver almost 11 000 additional seats into London Liverpool Street during the 3 h morning peak by December 2011.