One (train operating company)

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‘one’ is the brand name of London Eastern Railway Ltd, which operates local, suburban and express services from London Liverpool Street in the City of London to East and North London, Essex, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and East Anglia, otherwise known as the Greater Anglia network. ‘one’ is part of the National Express Group.

The Greater Anglia network was awarded to a single operator as part of a drive to reduce the number of train companies operating to major termini, in an effort to improve integration between services and reliability. On April 1, 2004 ‘one’ took over all services formerly operated by Anglia Railways and First Great Eastern, as well as the ‘West Anglia’ services of WAGN. The company is now the sole passenger operator on most of the Great Eastern Main Line. In March 2006, 'one' earned the dubious distinction of operating the most overcrowded train in Britain, the 0802 from Cambridge to London Liverpool Street ([Daily Telegraph, 2006])

The extensively and expensively marketed name of the new franchise has also been a source of criticism and confusion. In May 2004, the BBC [link] reported that the company was changing station announcements at Cambridge station by removing the name of the train operating company. Passengers had complained that it was difficult for passengers in the station to differentiate P.A. announcements for the "10:41 train" or the "10:40 One train".

Contents

1 Services
2 Rolling stock
3 Performance
4 External links

Services

Despite the choice of the brand name ‘one’ to emphasize the bringing together and integration of what had been four separate services, the company initially used sub-branding to try to ease the transition from the former companies’ well-known names:

one Anglia — InterCity services to Colchester, Ipswich and Norwich as well as local services in the Suffolk and Norfolk. For further information on local lines see the following links.
*Bittern Line (Norwich–Cromer–Sheringham)
*Breckland Line (Norwich-Ely (continuing to Cambridge))
*East Suffolk Line (Ipswich–Lowestoft)
*Ely to Peterborough Line (Ely-Peterborough)
*Felixstowe Branch Line (Ipswich–Felixstowe)
*Ipswich to Ely Line (Ipswich-Bury St. Edmunds, continuing to Ely/Newmarket-Cambridge)
*Wherry Lines (Norwich–Great Yarmouth / Lowestoft)

Class 47, no. 47818, at Cambridge on 23 August 2004. This locomotive is owned by Cotswold Rail but hired to ‘one’. Over the summer of 2004, it was used extensively to haul diverted passenger trains from London Liverpool St to Norwich, due to engineering works at Ipswich.

one Great Eastern — mainline services to Chelmsford, Colchester, Ipswich and Clacton.
* Mainline ‘metro’ service to Shenfield
* Upminster Branch Line (Romford–Upminster)
* Shenfield to Southend Line (Shenfield-Southend Victoria)
* Crouch Valley Line (Shenfield–Wickford–Southminster)
* Braintree Branch Line (Witham–Braintree)
* Sudbury Branch Line (Marks Tey–Sudbury)
* Colchester to Clacton Line (Colchester-Clacton or Walton-on-the-Naze)
* Mayflower Line (Manningtree–Harwich)
one West Anglia — services to Cambridge, Enfield, Hertford East and Chingford, plus local services from Liverpool Street to Stansted Airport. There are also services from Stratford to Stansted Airport.
* West Anglia Main Line (London–Harlow–Cambridge/Stansted)
* Lea Valley Lines (London–Seven Sisters / Tottenham / Chingford / Enfield)
one Stansted Express — express services between Liverpool Street and Stansted Airport.

This sub-branding has now been largely discontinued as it was proving to be confusing to passengers, and all services (other than Stansted Express) are now simply branded ‘one’.

In addition to its domestic services, 'one' is also a partner (along with Stena Line and Nederlandse Spoorwegen) in the Dutchflyer service.

Rolling stock

The company operates a fleet of Class 153, 156 and 170 DMUs for the local lines, with Class 315, 317, 321 and 360 EMUs for the mainline commuter services, and Class 90 locomotives for the intercity services, supplemented by Class 47s leased from Cotswold Rail.

Some locals have criticised the move to replace the Class 150s with Central Trains' 153s and 156s, saying that the 150s were more comfortable. The Class 170s stick predominantly to longer services, as they have slower acceleration than the Class 150, 153 and 156 stock, meaning they cannot stick to the timetables of the many local lines.

Performance

As can be seen below 'one' has been criticised for poor performance, the condition of their rolling stock and for making unpopular timetable changes. However, performance data from Network Rail shows that in the year to 4 February 2006 their performance was slightly better than average (86.5% versus 85.8%) ([Network Rail, 2006]).

‘one’ made a number of timetabling changes in December 2004, including expanding direct services to London from Lowestoft, Harwich and stations to Peterborough. However this led to some services being cut, such as the Ipswich to Cambridge service, resulting in overcrowding. This was so severe that it meant that the conductor could not get from one end of the train to the other, leading to lost revenue ([Railfuture News, 2005]).

one’s fleet includes class 317 electric multiple units.

Further changes to the timetable were implemented in December 2005 in order to "meet requirements laid down by the Department of Transport" ([Hoddesdon & Broxbourne Mercury, 2006]), which left some stations without any off-peak service, although a new route has been introduced between Hertford East and Stratford. Changes to the Norwich to Great Yarmouth via Reedham line reduced access to the Berney Marshes by means of Berney Arms railway station. However, these changes introduced an extra 3,000 seats on the West Anglia Route ([one railway, 2005])

‘one’ has been criticised for the condition of some of its rolling stock. The intercity trains use locomotive-hauled Mark 2 or Mark 3 sets. Due to their age, ‘one’ is gradually replacing the Mark 2 sets with Mark 3 sets, which are undergoing refurbishment. The refurbishment programme was, as of 6 March 2006, 50% complete ([one railway, 2006])

‘one’ has had poor industrial relations since it started operating the franchise, with guards and revenue staff striking over the introduction of new machines, and in December 2005 drivers’ union ASLEF banned rest day working, although this has since been resolved.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

[media]

[one railway]

Current scheduled passenger train operators in Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Domestic:	Arriva Trains Wales - c2c - Central Trains - Chiltern Railways - First Capital Connect First Great Western - First ScotRail - First TransPennine Express - Grand Central Railway¹ Great North Eastern Railway>GNER - Heathrow Connect - Hull Trains - Island Line - Merseyrail - Midland Mainline Northern Rail - Northern Ireland Railways² - one - Silverlink - Southeastern - Southern South West Trains - Virgin Trains
International:	Enterprise ² - Eurostar
Airport Link:	Gatwick Express - Heathrow Express - Stansted Express³
Sleeper:	Caledonian Sleeper⁴ - Night Riviera⁵
1 Starts December 2006 – 2 Operated on the Irish railway network - 3 Operated by one 4 Operated by First ScotRail – 5 Operated by First Great Western

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