Route Greater Anglia Class 321 London Liverpool Street To Southend Victoria,colchester Town

There should be a greater Anglia class 321with the navy blue doors and greater Anglia refurbished renatus class 321 and greater Anglia class 360 from London Liverpool Street to Southend Victoria, Colchester and Colchester town via Romford calling at all stations

 

Likely it'll only be one 321 variant. You'd be extremely lucky if they included the 360 also without it being a DLC.

 

why should there be?
what does this route have that's unique?

Give us more information than a brief demand list?

 

This is a much-requested route but a suggestion should really be a pitch to DTG and those who visit this forum. Imagine you're in front of the DTG bosses and they've just asked you "Why do you think this route/traction would be a good idea?"
What would you tell them?

 

Because it would be good to have a route in the east with Stratford and Southend Victoria and Colchester town using the class 321 with the navy blue doors and the greater Anglia class 360 I love the transaction moter on the greater Anglia class 321 and greater Anglia class 360

 

I didn't like the white 321s with blue doors, the ones that were repainted after Greater Anglia took over had red doors and they looked far nicer. The fleet certainly had a mixture of liveries by the end, the 30 Renatus ones in GA livery, the Renatus prototype in Grey, ex-National Express silver/grey, the white ones with either blue or red doors, the ex-GN blues ones with purple doors and the ex-Northern 321s and 322s in blue with light grey doors.

It made it interesting waiting for a train, trying to guess which livery would turn-up. Now it's all Aventras, the only variance is between the ones with slightly fewer seats and those that have yet to have the excess seats removed. Very boring, but they're a far better train for commuting on the Great Eastern. The 321s were really only designed for outer-suburban services but ended up on London to Clacton, Ipswich and even some Norwich services. The 360s are sadly missed though. Lovely units.

 

I miss greater Anglia class 360. Greater Anglia should have kept them. I prefer greater Anglia class 321 in the national express livery with the navy blue doors and the ones without the national express livery with the navy blue door and renatus grey doors to

 

Funnily enough I’ve been spending an evening or two with the AP “Dusty Bin” in TSC. Apart from the annoying vigilance, which after RTFM I worked out how to switch off, it’s quite a nice train to drive. And the GEML is one of the more interesting London termini routes though just running vanilla, haven’t bothered with the (ATS?) makeover (I don’t do ATS). The sounds at least from AP are nice and of course decent view out the front window.

So it would be a nice route for TSW possibly the Street to Clacton and Walton, or Ipswich.

Though my ideal era for the GEML would be late 70’s or early 80’s with slam door EMU’s on the stoppers, 309’s on the Clactons and silver roof Stratford 47’s on the Inter City services. 31 and 37 already in game for secondary services and freight.

 

Would love the GEML set in the modern day.

 

The major terminal of London Liverpool Street would be great. I like the section between Shenfield and Liverpool street and it would be great for scenarios

 

I think there would be disappointment if the GEML only went to Shenfield as fast services would take 20-25 mins to complete. The only realistic "shifts" would be an all-stations metro service with very little variation.
A run up to Colchester or further would include a lengthy 100mph section so you'd have a nice choice of Metro services, something a bit faster up the mainline through some Essex countryside or one of the many freight and RHTT workings.

 

You are correct. The route to Ipswich would be great. Essex would also be a really fun place to drive through in TSW4

 

Same here even when the greater Anglia class 321 still had the ex national express livery with the great Anglia name on the side of the train and the abellio greater Anglia seats with the red handles

 

Yh it would be it would be great if they added greater Anglia class 360 in a later DLC when they bring out the greater Anglia class 321

 

I would love to drive the greater Anglia class 321 through Essex especially Romford and shenfield

 

I’ve always thought this part of the Great Eastern area would be nice, but also plausible.

Say it was bundled with the 321 as a standalone loco, this area would offer a decent experience. As far as I’m aware this whole shaded section is electrified?
[edit] no, the Sudbury branch isn’t electrified, so would need alternate stock to be relevant if included in the route. Perhaps the route west of Colchester can be cut, and the Felixstowe branch added instead!

The route isn’t incredibly long, or underwhelmingly short. There’s mainline operations between Marks Tey, Colchester and Ipswich, branches to several places for variety and operational appeal, and even shuttles between the two Colchester stations.

Not sure why Hawich International isn’t labelled as that on this map?

 

Ipswich to Liverpool Street would be my favourite of the GEML routes

 

Not happening unfortunately as there’s no Greater Anglia license for TSW.

 

If we were to get the GEML in Tsw4 it would either follow the Tsc version and include the 70 mile stretch between Liverpool Street and Ipswich with the class 360 (only) or we get it in a late BR era which personally is the more lazy approach but opens up the opportunity to include the 309 which is a rare train in its self...

 

That's why we could have it in the NXEA era or a BR era

 

The route from Liverpool Street to Ipswich would be very fitting for a simulation game like TSW4

 

My favourite GEML is from London Liverpool Street to Colchester town Colchester and Southend Victoria via Romford

 

I think the National express NXEAwould be better even on a class 321 and class 360

 

I want the class 321 and class 360 to be added

 

Why can’t someone ask great Anglia manager

 

Hope so

 

I find the class 720 boring the should of kept some of the class 360

 

The 720s are pretty good aside from the 2+3 seating, services have improved significantly since the old rolling stock went. But having always had a choice of rolling stock on my line, it's a bit boring that everything is a 720 now.
However, from an operational point of view, small fleets don't make much sense if they can be avoided so it really didn't make sense to keep the 360s and their travails over on the MML suggests they were getting tired.

 

I miss greater Anglia class 360 because I loved the sound of the trains when they were departing Stratford and Romford and arriving at the stations

 

I love that section to

 

I love the Class 720's. Modern trains are my favourite

 

We really lucked out here in East Anglia. After some of the woefully uncomfortable modern trains like the Desiro City units, those Northern units I can never remember the name of, the IETs and the underwhelming 387s, we got two excellent types of trains. The amazing Stadler Flirts and the sleek Aventras.

I just wished we'd kept a bit of heritage like BR used to. A 302 (first AC units used on the Great Eastern), 309, 312 and a 321 should have kept for special events. Sadly it's all been about "sweating the assets" since privatisation and there's no "value" in maintaining pieces of historic relevance.

 

The only logical train to keep for "special events" would be the 321s, the slamdoor emus are extremely rare and none run or will run again for example the 309 at the East anglian railway museum, two cars of a 3 car set are currently there awaiting refurbishment and I've walked through and around both cars and they are pretty tattered, holes in floors, rust everywhere and when I sat in the cab a piece of paneling fell off when I tapped it so the condition of these 60s build are not fit for running purpose anymore

 

As you can see the conditions ain't the best

 

Yeah, can't wait to see it at the Chappel Beer Festival next month.
It's going to take a lot of money to get her back out on the main line, hopefully a nearby home can be found for the other car.

 

Couldn’t they go get a licence?

 

It's not as simple as that.

 

Could you explain how it works?

 

She won't run on the mainline again, was informed of that by some member of the clacton express preservation group

 

DTG have been working with different operators over the years so they will know exactly which companies are interested in licensing simulations of their routes and which ones are a no-go. Dovetail have probably factored that experience into their release schedule.

Where it becomes interesting is when each TOC contract expires and the route passes to Great British Railways. My big hope is that GBR and DTG will have a good relationship from the off which will open-up so many possibilities.

As things stand Greater Anglia will transfer to GBR in 3 months but the expectation is that they will be granted a short extension, especially given the travails of the fleet replacement and their recent excellent performance stats. Interestingly, West Midlands' contract is up at the same time but will likely be extended while GBR gets set-up.

 

But the contract for Greater Anglia expires on the 20th September 2026 so why will it transfer in 3 months time?

 

If it's 2026 then the DfT are quoting the wrong date. Which to be honest wouldn't be a surprise.

Some further investigation found that they'd been granted a 5 year extension in 2021 so you're right. I would read the entire contract to see if there is a break clause that could be triggered but I do that for a living and I'm off work trying to avoid detailed legal documents. We'll have to await the amended Parliamentary Bill to see what the plan is now we've got a new government.

 

its not that simple, i believe DTG single out the possibilities and the non possibilities and work from there i can only see the GEML coming if it is in a era prior to Greater Anglias takeover so anything post 2012

 

The 360 doesn't run on this route..

 

It doesn't now, but the conversation has been about whether this route would be set in 2025 or an earlier era. There were problems getting a licence with Greater Anglia which has ruled-out any GEML/Greater Anglia modern era content. However, Greater Anglia transferred to a holding company owned by the Department of Transport earlier this month and is now under public ownership which may change the situation for DTG.

As for the Class 360s they operated services from London to Braintree, Colchester, Harwich, Ipswich, Colchester Town, Clacton and Walton between 12th August 2003 and 31st December 2020. So if a route is set between 2003 and 2020 then a Class 360 would be an appropriate traction type for such a release.

 

360 would be brilliant, love the wide cab window. The best trains on the great eastern I travelled on I'd say.

 

They were good trains, having grown up with slam-doors and commuted on Classes 302,305,308,309,310,312 and the 321s the acceleration and build quality of the Desiros was amazing. But, I would still take a 309 or 312 over a Desiro any day. Simply because the traction of our youth always holds a special place in our hearts.

 

That map just makes me want to see Felixstowe and it's huge container yards and shipping all the more.

 

I wonder how much of it is legal to see for the public, similar to the Heathrow Airport branch issue?

Of course I would take Felixstowe over the Sudbury branch, as per my previous suggestion!