Greater Anglia has been named Train Operator of the Year at the Rail Business Awards 2025. It is the third time in six years that the company has received the accolade, having won the award in 2020 and 2021, then taking the runners up spot in 2022, 2023 and 2024, before regaining the award in 2025.
The judges said: “Greater Anglia has consistently delivered a robust and reliable service for its users over the past year. While the judges felt the operator had been dealt a strong hand thanks to recent investment in an all-new fleet, the company has played it well, reflected in its partnership with Network Rail that has delivered industry-leading punctuality. Many congratulations!”
It also follows on from GA being named Passenger Operator of the Year award at the National Rail Awards last September.
Greater Anglia has been the most punctual operator in the UK since April 2023 with annual performance at 94.1% using both the long-standing public performance measure (PPM – which measures arrival at destination within 5 minutes) and the more demanding “Time to 3” metric (which measures arrivals of every train at every station it serves). Its best performing routes are even achieving annual performance of between 95.0% and 98.3% on the PPM measure.
The company has transformed travel across its network, replacing its entire fleet, with brand new, state of the art, more comfortable trains, with Wi-Fi, plug points, USB points, air conditioning and improved accessibility. They also offer more seats, provide better reliability and service resilience, and have enabled additional services and quicker journey times to be introduced across its network – plus new, direct services, such as from Norwich to Stansted Airport.
At the annual awards event last Thursday night, Greater Anglia (GA) also won the Marketing and Communications Excellence award for its Stansted Express marketing campaign. It was also a finalist in the Sustainability and Environmental Excellence award and again in the Marketing and Communications Excellence award for its Revenue Protection campaign.
“Everyone at Greater Anglia is very proud to have won the Train Operator of the Year award for the third time in six years. Right across our company, colleagues are passionate about doing their best for the customers and communities we serve. With excellent performance, a commitment to customer service, high quality new trains, and effective partnerships with other rail industry organisations and wider stakeholders, we’re fully focused on maintaining our high standards.
“It was also pleasing to see further recognition with the Marketing and Communications Excellence award for our Stansted Express marketing campaign.
“We’re grateful to key partners, such as Network Rail, the Department for Transport, Stadler, Alstom, community rail partnerships, station adopters, other rail industry organisations and regional stakeholders who all play a key role in helping us provide a high-quality service. We will continue to work to keep up our high standards and keep on improving – always focused on delivering the best train service we can for customers, communities, and wider stakeholders across our region.”
The judges’ citation for GA’s other award win (the Marketing and Communications Excellence award for its Stansted Express marketing campaign) was as follows: “Greater Anglia needed to create a memorable creative campaign that would raise awareness and increase usage of the Stansted Express, that would stand out in the airport and beyond. The judges felt this was a really well planned and executed communications campaign with impressive results! Well done to them!”
In the last year, Greater Anglia has also won the Passenger Operator of the Year, Fleet Achievement of the Year and Large Station of the Year (for Cambridge) awards at the National Rail Awards, a Golden Spanner award for the excellent performance of its four car bi-mode trains at the rail industry fleet reliability awards, the Net Zero Pioneer award at the Spotlight Rail Awards for its progress in reducing its carbon emissions and operating a more sustainable railway, and three Golden Whistles awards for its high standards of punctuality and reliability.
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