First Great Eastern

Advantages: Good announcements
Disadvantages: Generally packed trains

...I expected better things from First Great Eastern. Now, two years of cramped trains, faulty signals and poor service, I’m back working in Chelmsford, and am glad to be rid of my daily grind into work. You see I am big and ugly enough to take the occasional mis-hap on the way to work. It’s beyond the realms of probability that a train company will be able to run all of it’s trains on time, in a clean and safe environment. I accept that there will ...
...Punctuality doesn’t exist on a First Great Eastern train. A rough time, giving or taking a few minutes each way seems to be the way that they do things, which isn’t too bad, but there are also occasions when signal failures and vandalism to a train seemed to absolutely cripple the whole network, and this was a fairly common occurance. * - Frequency Thankfully, even if you miss your normal train, there is usually one a few minutes behind. Even with ... Read review

Advantages: frequent services
Disadvantages: dirty and no seats at peak times

...a seat on a train. First Great Eastern obviously think differently. First Great Eastern run train services between London, Southend, Ipswich, Harwich and Clacton plus a couple of smaller branch lines. First Great Eastern itself was formed with privatisation in the late 1990’s as part is the First Bus group of companies. This review mainly concentrates on services between Chelmsford and Liverpool Street as this is the route that I have daily ...
...services with friends who use First Great Eastern services from other destinations I think this review does give a fairly accurate pictures of their services as a whole. In general terms the facilities at Chelmsford Station are very good and on the whole clean although the toilets are well overdue for refurbishment. The station is well staffed and keeps passengers well informed of delays/ changes to services etc. My main gripe with services from ... Read review

Advantages: Good value, Fast journey times
Disadvantages: Not that comfortable

First Great Eastern is a train operating company which operates metro and medium distance journeys in the south-east out of it's London terminal Liverpool Street. I used to be a student in Barking, and at first used to use the District Line and c2c from Barking station to get to Central London. But i found that using Goodmayes station (which is marginally closer to me), it was quicker, more frequent amd more reliable to use the First Great Eastern ...
...to Basingstoke. There is no First Class on these services, and they are not the most comfortable trains that FGE operate. As well as Metro services, the company offers longer-distance services to Southend Victoria, Clacton, Ispwich and others. First Great Eastern is the stopping operator on the line between Ipswich and London (mainline fast services provided by Anglia Railways). These are provided by Class 321 trains which are being refurbished ... Read review

Advantages: Modern trains, high frequency of trains.
Disadvantages: Uncomfortable trains, bad staffing.

I have an interest in railways - so I am not criticising Great Eastern lightly... I live in South Woodham Ferrers (on the Southminster Branch). The service is hourly (as good as it gets). I have a few niggles about the staff (or lack of them) and the ugly and uncomfortable metro trains that get sent on this line. Those who travel on the metro trains on the Great Eastern will know how uncomfortable and unreliable they can be. Great Eastern cast off ...
...past Shenfield) because they keep their long distance trains on the Southend line (to compete with the LTS). Perhaps Great Eastern should keep their existing customers before attracting new ones. Anyway, I was travelling to London on a Saturday morning and there was no trains running because the train broke down (what a surprise!). The Replacement Rail Service was non existant and the customer services were useless. That niggle over; lets go to the ... Read review

Advantages: More comfortable than 2003! (previous reviews). Buffett car, in seat trolley service. Frequent services.
Disadvantages: Array of faults with trains/overhead lines/signalling.

Although overall a good service, this line is prone to delayed trains (and cancellations although this is rare). I commute on this line from Manningtree to London but also use this line often at other times. DO NOT RELY ON THIS TRAIN LINE AS A MEANS TO GET TO THE AIRPORT, or an important meeting, or theatre, unless you have plenty of time that you are willing to reserve. If you get to London on time, go and have a leisurely lunch or drinks before ...
...prone to be 10 minutes late but when something drastic goes wrong it could mean you being stuck for hours and there is no-where for trains to be re-directed. In fairness buses are swiftly put on if this happens. There are often weekend engineering works which may involve getting a rail replacement bus for part of your journey. Always check for this before you plan a journey. The train/rail knows when in advance when engineering will occur, they ... Read review

Advantages: See Opinion
Disadvantages: See Opinion

...Before I start, I must say that I may be biased in commenting on BR but I have tried to lay my opinion out as factual as possible. LB British Rail doesn't exist any more as a company. Since privatisation in 1995 BR has been split into the infrastructure company (Railtrack (!)) and a number of Train Running Companies (TOCs). Most of the TOCs are owened by bus companies (e.g. First Great Eastern - First Group & W.A.G.N - National Express). Some companies have done well (such as Anglia) and some have done badly (such as W.A.G.N). Now lets go back to the bad old days of B.R... B.R was a nightmare to the Conservatives. They made it known that they were anti rail. As a result of under investment, B.R tumbled in to £millions of debt. This goes back to Beeching (who was responsible for closing down miles of line. This was to cut back debts... Read review

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Advantages: Quite Good Collection Of Rolling Stock
Disadvantages: Small And The Setup Needs To Be Improved

...: This is the easiest form. As I said before, there is a frequent branch line service between Marks Tey and Sudbury. If you want the times of the trains, you can contact First Great Eastern on 08459505000 or National Rail Enquiries on 08457484950. By bus: There is a bus service. I cannot tell you much about this but if you contact First or "traveline". I don't know these numbers but you can access them from www.firstgroup.co.uk. By car: And of course there is the jolly old car. The museum is signposted from Colchester. Main site area ****************************************************** The site is small so there is not much there. There is of course the commercial trains running from the main platform operated by the train company and these are more interesting to watch then the museum trains. You get a ride around the museum but it is only within... Read review

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Advantages: Regular Service and Cheap Advance Prices.
Disadvantages: Expensive if you just turn up

...in the First North Western and First Great Eastern franchises. They are also in charge of the Croydon TramLink system and numerous bus companies covering the country from Devon and Cornwall to Aberdeen and Edinburgh. ***THE TRAINS*** High Speed Train (HST) – The saviour of the old British Rail and, when it was launched, the fastest Diesel Passenger Train in the world. The HST has been in service for over 25 years, not only with BR, but with the new train operators GNER, Virgin, Midland Mainline and FGW. They are the most common form of train travel on FGW and are still reliable after all these years. Comfortable and with a nice and easy ride, they should be around for a lot longer to come. Since First took over the franchise, the trains have been painted in a variety of different colours, although the company now seem to be settling down... Read review

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