First Great Eastern Railway

First Great Eastern became One in 2004 and a new service was created running between Norwich and London Liverpool Street and all intervening stations in between. Having commuted from Ipswich to Liverpool Street for years I have to say that generally they are fairly good. For around £5000 a year you get a season ticket allowing you on any train from Ipswich to London, this includes any stations between Ipswich and London, you can only sit in economy class but this is fine. Generally there are trolly staff offering drinks and food at highly inflated prices. I do have to say that the trains leave generally every 20 minutes to half hour, but from 6am in the ...  Read the complete review

All of my life I have lived a train ride away from London. Working from the age of 16, I have spent the best part of 9 years travelling to and from the City to get to work. Fortunately for me I learnt to drive when I was 17, and for some time was able to avoid the Connex-controlled route from my old town of Welling to London Bridge. However, moving to Chelmsford saw me take a job in the centre of town - literally a 10 minute drive from home. Talk about bliss! No more hour-long traffic jams, or waiting in all weather for the train to pull in late again. What could possibly go wrong? I shouldn't have asked, because within six months a company takeover saw me ...  Read the complete review

I always thought that when you buy a train ticket that you were purchasing 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 experience of. However having used other services on an infrequent basis and discussed their services with friends who use First Great ...  Read the complete review

First Great Eastern have served east anglia well, they provide fast frequent, reliable sevices between london and ipswich. Their trains are fairly modern and usually clean. The service as a whole is probably the best on which i have travelled on. The company has new trains just in and they are fitted with mod cons such as air conditioning and 'plug' doors that dont scare you to death when another train flies past! Overall an outstanding service from many other train operators. ...  Read the complete review

I use First Great Eastern trains most weekends. The reason is that I live in SE London. My mates live around Hornchurch/Ilford, so I normally go drinking in these areas. After a heavy(ish) evening`s boozing session I require a late train home. To commence with, I catch a train from Stratford,the early evening service is frequent and reliable with few delays or cancellations! Returning home, they are less frequent, however, the trains are still reliable and tend to finish late. More recently, we have started going to Brentwood. Again no problem as the last train runs at 2330 approx. My only criticism is that maybe services could operate a little later towards ...  Read the complete review