Dutch firm Abellio took the reigns of the former National Express East Anglia franchise on February 5th, in a rather low key manner, the only indicators of the new operator being the eradication of any Nat-Ex branding and replacement with a hasty sticker "blitz".
The reason becomes apparent though as the franchise duration is only a paltry 29 months, in the main to deal with services during the Olympics, precluding any large scale investment in overhauls/repaints or new stock introductions. The franchise will then go through the usual bidding process to find an operator in what could be a 15 year term.
For myself, the new operator looked to be headed in the right direction with the occasional diagramming in the first week (most mornings) of a Cl.156 unit on my 07:45 morning train rather than the usually inadequate single car Cl.153. Unfortunately this doesn't appear to have been a permanent change as the 153 has been employed in the weeks since. Thus it's usually standing to work, and then wedged once the Needham commuters board for Ipswich. This doesn't need to happen of course, only two or three of us actually need to get this train from Stowmarket to alight at Needham. The Needham morning crowd obviously have to catch this train. However, the Ipswich bound punters at Stow have a choice of the previous 07:35 or the later 08:11 service. It's always one of them that complains about standing too. Idiots!
