Rail company Greater Anglia has shown off the first work on its new suburban trains which should transform many of its services from 2019.

East Anglian Daily Times: The Greater Anglia Bombardier suburban train.The Greater Anglia Bombardier suburban train. (Image: Archant)

The Aventra trains are being made at Derby by Bombardier, and are designed to replace existing trains on routes to Ipswich, Clacton, Braintree, and to Cambridge in the west of the region.

It unveiled a life-size mock-up of the interior of the train, showing seating, lighting, a toilet and the general carriage layout.

They will also supplement the Norwich to Liverpool Street Intercity service with a third train an hour between Norwich and London.

Greater Anglia is replacing every single train on the network during 2019 to 2020.

A total of 665 carriages in total are going to be built at the Bombardier factory in Derby, to form 111 new trains – 89 five-carriage trains and 22 ten-carriage trains.

Groups of stakeholders including rail user groups have visited the mock-up to give feedback to Greater Anglia about the design to inform and shape the final specification.

More than 1,000 other people, mainly Greater Anglia customers, have also taken part in an online consultation about the design of the rail company’s new trains.

The new trains will all have air conditioning, plug and USB points and free, fast wifi. They will be longer than those they replace and have more seats.

Overall, Greater Anglia is investing £1.4 billion on 169 new trains, of which £900 million is being spent on Bombardier trains. The new trains will start to replace the existing ones from 2019 and should all be in service by the end of 2020.

Mike Kean, Greater Anglia Deputy Managing Director, said: “We’re very excited about our new trains, as they will transform journeys for everyone. We’ve consulted widely to make sure the trains are suitable for all of our customers and we have received very positive feedback and helpful comments.”

Alan Fravolini, Project Director, East Anglia AVENTRA said: “Bombardier are delighted to have hit this important contract milestone, that will help secure the design phase for East Anglia.”

A further 58 trains are being built for Greater Anglia by Stadler, in Switzerland, for Intercity, Stansted Express and regional services.