One of Greater Anglia’s much-heralded new trains has suffered an early breakdown on a Suffolk rail line, not long into its period of service.

East Anglian Daily Times: The first new Stadler train from Ipswich on arrival at Cambridge station. Picture: GREATER ANGLIAThe first new Stadler train from Ipswich on arrival at Cambridge station. Picture: GREATER ANGLIA (Image: Archant)

The rail firm is bringing in a new series of bimode diesel and electric trains on routes all over Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to replace its ageing stock, some of which dates back to the 1970s.

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The new Stadler trains have been billed as a faster, more reliable and better equipped than their predecessors.

But a fault on one of the new trains was discovered at Elsmwell, on the Cambridge to Ipswich line, at 8.30am on Monday, December 2.

A team of engineers were sent out to deal with the issue but were unsure what the root of the problem was.

A temporary rail replacement bus service was set up in the meantime but by 10.25am they were able to clear the line.

A spokeswoman for the company said they had hoped the new trains would be "a lot more reliable".

She added: "We are investigating what happened at Elmswell this morning to identify what caused the problem.

"We expect our new trains' performance to be a lot better than our old ones, and will be taking all necessary steps to ensure passengers receive the level of service they rightly expect as we complete the transition to our new fleet.

"We would like to apologise to passengers for the inconvenience caused and advise them to claim compensation via our Delay Repay scheme."

The new models have been described by Greater Anglia as 'state of the art' and boast features such as superspeed wifi and plug sockets, increased space, air conditioning, USB points and information screens.

Some passengers had been travelling via Cambridge after services between Peterborough and Ipswich were suspended due to a different train fault.