Stansted Express
 |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Franchise(s): | Part of the West Anglia Great Northern franchise (1997 - 31 March 2004) Part of Greater Anglia 1 April 2004 - 5 February 2012[1] |
| Main Route(s): | Liverpool Street - Stansted Airport (West Anglia Main Line) |
| Other Route(s): | None |
| Fleet size: | 82 |
| Stations called at: | 5 |
| Parent company: | National Express East Anglia (National Express Group) |
| Web site: | www.stanstedexpress.com |
| Stansted Express | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stansted Express is a sub-brand of National Express East Anglia. It is the direct train service linking central London (Liverpool Street station) to Stansted Airport, one of London's major air hubs. Prior to 2004 Stansted Express was part of the WAGN franchise.
The service runs every 15 minutes with a journey time of between 46 minutes to over 1 hour during peak times.
Unlike the Heathrow Express and the Gatwick Express, the service also calls at stations between the airport and the central London Terminus. These are Tottenham Hale (which provides interchange with the London Underground and easier access to the West End and North London), Bishop's Stortford, Harlow Town and Stansted Mountfitchet (peak times and some weekend services only).
Contents |
[edit] History
In the late 1980s, British Rail (BR) was extending the electrification north from London Liverpool Street towards Cambridge. Included in this plan was the construction of new branch line, diverging from the mainline at Stansted Mountfitchet, to serve the newly built Stansted Airport, which opened in 1991. Therefore, BR decided to build a dedicated fleet of units to work the new Stansted Express service.
[edit] Rolling stock
Stansted Express originally used a fleet of five Class 322 EMUs until it was decided to change to a dedicated fleet of nine Class 317/7 EMUs and 12 Class 317/8s. The displaced Class 322s were redeployed on several other routes/franchises around the country before settling in their current role in Scotland working services between Glasgow/Edinburgh and North Berwick.
As part of the 1300 new carriages to expand the UK's passenger rail fleet, Stansted Express were designated to receive 120 new vehicles. In February 2009, it was announced that Bombardier Transportation would produce the new trains.[2] Bombardier announced on 2 April that a contract had been signed for the delivery of the 120 coaches between December 2010 and March 2011.[3] The trains have now been identified as Class 379 units.[4] The first of the new Class 379 units entered passenger service on the eve of Thursday 3 March 2011 when it ran the 20:10 from London Liverpool Street to Stansted Airport and the 21:15 return service. All of the Class 379s have now been built and are in service on Stansted Express services. This has allowed the Class 317/7 and 317/8 units to be moved onto other services to increase capacity.
[edit] Criticism
In May 2009 National Express abolished off-peak fares on services from Stansted Airport. Therefore all fares are considered peak (regardless of day or time travelled) and hence this is reflected in the price. Those living locally have to produce ID in order to obtain a discounted ticket, though the discount is less than the previous off-peak fare.[5] It should however be noted that combinations of tickets may be used, as long as the train stops at the station where one ticket's validity ends and the other's starts - for example, by buying single tickets from Liverpool Street to Harlow Town at a cost of £10, and from Harlow Town to Stansted Airport at £6.80, and then catching a train which calls at Harlow Town, as of 2011 a saving of £4.20 can be made on the £21 single fare to the airport.
In September 2010, advertisements for Stansted Express at Stansted Airport were banned because they were deemed misleading, advertising a 35-minute journey time to Tottenham Hale and claiming this as "London". The Advertising Standards Authority believed the advertisements might confuse travellers into thinking that the train would reach central London in 35 minutes. National Express defended the adverts, stating that Tottenham Hale allows access to the Victoria Line and also stating that the adverts made no reference to the trains going into central London in 35 minutes. [6]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Pre-Qualification Process Document for the Greater Anglia Franchise". Department for Transport. 11 January 2011. http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/rail/passenger/franchises/greater-anglia/processdocument.pdf. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
- ^ Hitachi to power new ‘British’ intercity trains and Bombardier to build 120 coaches - railnews.co.uk, 12/02/09
- ^ http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Bombardier-Wins-a-188-Million-iw-14825741.html
- ^ Today's Railways issue 91
- ^ http://www.braintreeandwithamtimes.co.uk/news/braintree_news/4562346.Stansted__Discount_train_fares_for_locals/
- ^ "Stansted Express posters banned for being misleading". BBC News. 7 September 2010. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11223723.
[edit] External links
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
4.1% 
