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Recent history of rolling stock on the British railways isn’t exactly known for comfort, with the Class 800 series of trains being rolled out in the hundreds despite major complaints about build quality and seating comfort. But one operator, Greater Anglia, didn’t go down the Class 800 route. Instead, they went for an intercity version of the FLIRT train from Swiss manufacturer Stadler, known for building high-quality trains.
So, did Stadler manage to build the first genuinely good intercity train for Britain in years? Let’s explore that in today’s video.
Train type: Class 745 (Stadler FLIRT)
Route: London Liverpool Street to Norwich
Train: 09:30 London Liverpool Street to Norwich
Distance: 115 miles ~ 185 km/h
Journey time: 1h48m
Average speed: 64 mph ~ 103 km/h
Price: from £12
42 Comments
Welp, looks like I didn’t quite nail the pronunciation of Greater Anglia—but hey, I hope it was at least funny 😛
About half of the Intercity trains don't have tables (except for airline-style ones) or first class and they are supposed to be for the Stansted ones, but have ended up for Norwich too.
Look a lot better than the pendalinos to Carlisle that I use. Hard seats, poor legroom and small windows
Ask Greater Angela lol
As so many others have said – it is "An-glia" and not "Ang-ila" 😂 But easy mistake for anyone whose native language isn't English.
Great video! Did you travel home by ferry from Harwich?
If the UK’s railways ain’t Europe’s most expensive, I don’t know what is 😂
To the people banging on about Anglia I'd love to hear you pronounce names like Højby or Sæd while speaking Danish perfectly clearly 😂
10:52 While Colchester has a platform that is 620 metres long, it’s as you have said broken into two sections and so it’s not the longest ‘unbroken’ platform in the UK, that title goes to Gloucester at 602 metres long.
Considering they only have 4 powered bogies on a 12 car train, the acceleration is amazing.
I've only travelled on the 755 (and whatever version they use over in Cardiff) and I like them a lot. They should honestly be the universal Sprinter/Turbo replacement especially with the bi-mode capability.
This train seems pretty good but if you got from Norwich to Peterborough you get the absolute worst train with only 2 cars
At 00:48 you walked past the shrine erected in the Booking Hall of Liverpool Street railway station to perpetuate the memory of convicted criminal Captain Charles Algernon Fryatt, of Harwich in the County of Essex, who was executed by the German Navy for gross violations of the internationally-accepted Laws and Customs of War.
The Stadler Flirt trains are great and the Beaulieu Park Station looks very nice. I would like to see these trains operated by Northern. However, only a small part of the urban infrastructure of the North East and North West is electrified – this is the main issue with the regional services, e.g., a new station is required in Bradford to match Beaulieu Park.
There are no mistakes and I absolutely will be calling it greater Angela from now on
These 745s really are the nicest trains on the U.K. rail network. How they escaped the DfT maximum discomfort treatment is remarkable.
Flott rapport!
Always nice to see new Stadler trains. Still, in the typical British fashion (yes, I used your phrase :)) they seem to have gone for the very very rock bottom cheap-ass option of an interior. I know, this journey is under 2 hours, but it seems the Brits buy cheap and crappy interior regardless of how long the route is, they just go for the cheapest option. This results in almost all regular British train interiors look cheap and plasticky, even if trains are otherwise excellent. I really don't get this approach. Trains in pretty much all other European countries are really nice, comfortable and in some cases (Iryo in Spain, Trenitalia in Italy, etc) go far and beyound when it comes to comfort and classiness of both seats and onboard services. And then there's Britain with it's cheap plastic everywhere. Why oh why are they doing this???
85 quid for a last minute train(2 hours)?? outrageous!! just out of curiosity I went on DB and I could take 2 ICE first class between Frankfurt and Munich (nearly 4 hours) for 85E tomorrow. I know DB are plagued with delays but British Railways are borderline broken
11:05. Definitely not the same platform, one is a basically a bay – they're separate faces. And I'm not just saying that because I grew up in Gloucestershire, honest.
British trains are really ugly. And this is one of the better looking trains.
I don't think the seats on these are noticeably better than the IETs, the first class seats are honestly worse than basically any other first class seats in the UK. No recline, hard, and nasty interior lighting. At least the first class tickets are cheap.
I like the way he said greater angila, thats not even a joke i actually respect that
Welcome aboard this Greater Angela service to Norwich.
Hearing that idiotic "See it, say it, sorted" after every station stop becomes extremely tiresome after the first hour (well, actually after the first occurrence). It has the rather counter-productive effect of making me want to do something unpleasant to the PA system.
12:15 Whey!! I live here!
I find these units are worse than other intercity units, as they are super rough over the S&C at Tottenham Hale to the point where you will fall over. I find the seats are super hard, compared to the seats on the Class 168 clubman. Class 168 is a better product than class 745. Also, an internal step is still a step, which makes them no better than non level boarding stock. Plus, you need a ramp at some stations because there is still a large gap. The best all-around trains are class 139, which has level boarding with no internal step.
I get this train when I go to visit family, so a little trick I learned is that the price from Stratford to Norwich is usually a few quid less than the full journey to Liverpool st. Sometimes I can get a ticket for only £7!
The largest shopping centre in the UK is not in Stratford but in Shepherds Bush. Both are of the Westfield chain, maybe hence the confusion? Also, the purple trains no longer go by Crossrail as that was just the name used during planning and construction. They are called Elizabeth Line since its opening.
Crossrail is now known as the Lizzy Line. Plus ur tain will have excellerated more bacuse within 1 minute that Lizzy Line train would be calling at Maryland.
No onboard, complimentary catering for first class, you been ripped off mate.
These along with the pendolinos are the UKs best units imo.
Ive travelled from Liverpool Street to Colchester in the evening, the train was formed of 2 X 5 coach sets coupled together, the seats did not have any armrests, the usual stock has the manual arm rest option which I like.
Amazing acceleration! Advance tickets with a railcard are an absolute bargain at £7.95 & £12.95 for each class. We have points, not American switches, in the same way that we have railways, not railroads.
Excellent video Simon, and the new name is awesome ! Love it. I will now and forever know this company by it's new name😂😂
Love the FLIRT it's excellent, but table seating is so Swiss. I don't like that
To be honest, Angela was an improvement I'd never thought of!
I think I met this "greater Angela" one Saturday night many years ago whilst rather drunk.
I'm just happy (and surprised) you made a video tha zipped past my area, great vid Simon.
I used to do this route quite often in the early-mid 90s during my university days.
– Stratford station was the old station, just for local services.
– The train was a Class 86 with old Mk2 carriages.
– Journey time was about the same, although some services called at Ipswich only and did it in 1 hr 30 mins.
– Highlight of the journey was, and still is, the noisy bridge just before Norwich station.
Who is Angela?
Substitute Angela for ANGLIA.
Look so much better than the corradia DSB has bought
Great review of these great trains. They are also making entries intu U.S. Utah area.
They have a great diversity of power plants and are really keen to move on out of the stations.
In the smaller short range train versions they need to add more restrooms; apart from that, these are the goal to meet or beat compared to all the others.
Thank you.
Imagine thinking it’s cool to have a crack at a guy who does these great videos because he mispronounced a word in a language that isn’t his first. Good job everyone.