Customers using rail services across the East of England are set to benefit from a programme of service improvements it was announced on 27 February 2008, as the train operator ‘one’ was renamed National Express East Anglia.  National Express Group Chief Executive Richard Bowker unveiled the first three trains in the new National Express East Anglia livery at London Liverpool Street station, and events to mark the occasion took place in Norwich and Cambridge. The new liveried trains were Class 90 No. 90003 and coaching stock set NC13, Class 360 No. 360115 and Class 317 No. 317506.
 
National Express East Anglia is set to implement a programme of improvements to raise standards of performance, on-train comfort, information provision, ticket purchases and station facilities.  During 2007 punctuality rose to over 90%, and the train operator is putting plans in place to increase punctuality further with initiatives including:
 
* Extra spare trains and train crew to enable faster recovery in the event of disruption
* Recruitment of more engineers to enable quicker repairs for trains
* Additional resources in the Control office to enable a better response to incidents

At the launch, Richard Bowker explained what the changes will mean for customers, “The transition from ‘one’ to National Express East Anglia is more than a change of name and livery, it’s about how we do things.  Directly tackling those issues which matter most to customers through additional investment in customer-focused activities is where we can make a real difference to our customer’s lives through travel. We are currently integrating our businesses across the UK into one division and having undertaken customer research we believe that giving greater clarity on who we are and where we operate will help us deliver our promise to customers of making travel simpler.  We wanted a brand that makes sense to our customers and is easily recognisable as National Express – whichever of our services they travel on”.  

Following extensive research with employees and customers, the National Express name was developed for buses and trains.  The coach business has operated under the name National Express since the 1970’s, it is a recognised ‘Superbrand’ and more than 90% of the UK population has an affinity to the name.                                                                  
Richard continued, “Our research shows it will make our customers’ travel decisions simpler and it will benefit employees as they will be part of one of the biggest travel brands in the UK.  We are now fulfilling our commitments set out in late 2007 of delivering a programme of customer service improvements directly tackling those issues which matter most to customers – punctuality, information provision, on-train and station facilities, car parking and the ease of buying tickets.”  

The programme of investment revealed at the rebrand launch will also include major enhancements to customer information and station facilities with key projects such as:
 
* Upgrading the customer information systems at stations
* Extra station hosts at key stations at the busiest times
* Free Journeycheck text alerts to customers to advise them of service changes

Upgrading station facilities including installation of 13 toilet refurbishments, 51 automatic ticket machines, and improvements to car park lighting at 20 stations.
 
Another major initiative will be the refurbishment of the 77 Class 321 trains used on the lines between London and Southend, Chelmsford, Colchester, Clacton, Harwich and Ipswich, along with the refurbishment of the 24 Class 317/6 trains used on the London to Harlow, Bishops Stortford, Audley End and Cambridge route.
 
The roll out of the National Express East Anglia brand will take place through a phased programme to achieve a visible, but cost effective transition, utilising planned refurbishment and maintenance schedules to apply the new livery to trains.  Initially, all trains will receive a stripe showing the new identity, but the application of the full livery will be done on a staged basis, thereby ensuring investment is focused on customer service improvements.
 
Further plans to improve services are under development and more details will be confirmed later in 2008.