First Great Eastern
British train operating company, 1997-2004
First Great Eastern was a British train operating company that ran the Great Eastern franchise in the East of England from January 1997 until March 2004. It was owned by FirstGroup.
01Services
First Great Eastern operated all stops and limited stops services on the Great Eastern Main Line from London Liverpool Street to Southend Victoria, Southminster, Braintree, Colchester Town, Clacton-on-Sea, Walton-on-the-Naze, Harwich Town and Ipswich. It also ran services on the Romford to Upminster Line and the Gainsborough Line from Marks Tey to Sudbury.
02Rolling stock
First Great Eastern inherited a fleet of Classes 312, 315 and 321 electric multiple units from British Rail. A Class 15x diesel multiple unit was hired from Anglia Railways for the Marks Tey to Sudbury service, due to the line not being electrified; a Class 150 was used on weekdays and a Class 153 on weekends. Prior to this arrangement, a Class 121 Bubble Car was hired from Silverlink.
A franchise commitment was the replacement of the Class 312s. In May 2001, First Great Eastern ordered 21 Class 360 Desiros from Siemens Mobility, with the first entering service in August 2003.
| Class | Image | Type | Top speed | Number | Routes operated | Built | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mph | km/h | ||||||
| 121 Bubble Car | diesel multiple unit | 70 | 112 | Hired from Silverlink |
Marks Tey, Sudbury | 1960 | |
| 150 | 75 | 120 | Hired from Anglia Railways |
1984-1987 | |||
| 153 | 1987-1988 | ||||||
| 312 | electric multiple unit | 90 | 145 | 24 | Colchester, Walton-on-the-Naze Harwich Town, Manningtree London Liverpool Street, Clacton-on-Sea and Ipswich (peak times only) |
1975-1978 | |
| 315 | 75 | 120 | 43 | London Liverpool Street, Shenfield and Southminster Romford, Upminster |
1980-1981 | ||
| 321 | 100 | 160 | 77 | London Liverpool Street, Braintree, Southend Victoria, Ipswich, Walton-on-the-Naze, Colchester Town, Clacton-on-Sea Wickford, Southminster (Sundays only) |
1988-1990 | ||
| 360/1 Desiro | 21 | London Liverpool Street, Clacton-on-Sea and Harwich Town London Liverpool Street, Ipswich (peak times only) |
2002-2003 | ||||
03Depot
First Great Eastern's fleet was maintained at Ilford EMU Depot.
04Demise
In 2002, as part of a franchise reorganisation by the Strategic Rail Authority, it was announced that the Great Eastern franchise would be merged into a new Greater Anglia franchise. In December 2003, the Strategic Rail Authority awarded the franchise to National Express and services were transferred to One (later National Express East Anglia) on 1 April 2004.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “First Great Eastern”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- 360111 at Ipswich.jpg by Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0
- First Great Eastern Logo1.gif by Wilbysuffolk & First Great Eastern, Public domain
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