THE Transport Minister is joining commuters into London Liverpool Street this-morning to publicise longer trains being laid on to ease the crush’ hour. Chris Mole is formally naming an electric train The Essex Commuter at 10am on Platform 10 to celebrate

By Mike Brooke

THE Transport Minister is joining commuters coming into London Liverpool Street this-morning (Monday) to publicise longer trains being laid on to ease the crush’ hour.

Chris Mole is formally naming a Class 321 electric train The Essex Commuter at 10am on Platform 10 to celebrate.

It is part of the first stage of National Express East Anglia’s programme to increase seating capacity which began at the start of the winter timetable last month.

The �173 million investment is aimed at giving passengers from North Essex and Suffolk 5,700 more seats on normally crowded trains form Braintree, Clacton-on-Sea, Colchester, Chelmsford, Harwich, Ipswich and Witham.

“The Government is investing in several major improvements for commuters coming into London” said the Transport minister. “Nearly 200 additional carriages will provide more reliable and less congested journeys.”

Capacity is being increased with 68 refurbished carriages on services from Suffolk and North Essex this year and 120 new carriages on trains from Stansted Airport and Cambridge in 2011. It involves 30 new trains and 17 refurbished trains brought in to carry 11,000 more passengers at weekday peak-times.

Trains increased to 12 carriages on the morning run into London are the 5.21 and 8.03 from Colchester, 6.21 from Colchester Town, 7.03 from Chelmsford and 9.00 from Braintree.

The 12-carriage evening run out of Liverpool Street are the 5.08 and 6.22 to Clacton-on-Sea and 6.32 to Ipswich.

Eight carriage trains into London are now the 8.00 from Harwich Town and 8.58 from Witham.

Eight carriage trains on the evening run out of Liverpool Street are the 4.15 to Harwich Town and 7.08 to Clacton-on-Sea.