Anglia Railways

Anglia Railways was a British train operating company, owned by GB Railways, which between 5 January 1997 and 31 March 2004 operated mainline trains out of London Liverpool Street station and a number of local rail services in East Anglia.

GB Railways won the franchise because it offered to operate the franchise for the lowest subsidy. It also made a commitment to increase mainline services, which until then operated hourly between London and Norwich, to half hourly. The half hourly service to Norwich was introduced in 2000. GB Railways ordered a fleet of Class 170 trains, although the services were operated initially using leased Class 317 trains because the manufacturer delivered the new trains late. Use of diesel multiple unit train also allowed the company to introduce direct services to London from towns off the electrified main line, including Sheringham, Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth. It also introduced an experimental service outside of the territory inherited with the franchise. The service was called "London Crosslink" and ran from the Great Eastern Main Line via the North London Line to Basingstoke. This service ran from 30 May 2000 to 28 September 2002. Anglia Railways also introduced a highly successful direct service between Norwich and Cambridge using a two-car Class 170 diesel multiple unit. This service continues to run today.

On 1 April 2004 its franchise was transferred to Train Operating Company London Eastern Railway Ltd, which is a subsidiary of the National Express Group. Its services were initially branded 'one' and have since been rebranded as National Express East Anglia.

The decision to transfer the franchise to National Express was controversial, since Anglia was twice awarded "Train Operator of the Year" and also "European Train Operator of Year 2000". Anglia Railways was very popular with passengers, its parent company GB Railways, was purchased by First Group, operator of First Great Eastern, who had won the "Train Operator of the Year" award once as well. National Express on the other hand had a reputation for poor service (Central Trains).