Skip to main content

EIB agrees funding for new East Anglia trains

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has agreed to provide US$76 million (£60 million) for the purchase of new trains that will improve passenger services in East Anglia on key London, intercity, airport and local services in the UK. The 378 new train carriages will be used by franchise operator Abellio and replace outdated existing electric and diesel trains currently used on the routes. The EIB loan is guaranteed by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) under the Investment Plan for Europe, and
October 6, 2016 Read time: 2 mins

The 4270 European Investment Bank (EIB) has agreed to provide US$76 million (£60 million) for the purchase of new trains that will improve passenger services in East Anglia on key London, intercity, airport and local services in the UK.

The 378 new train carriages will be used by franchise operator Abellio and replace outdated existing electric and diesel trains currently used on the routes. The EIB loan is guaranteed by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) under the Investment Plan for Europe, and this is the first EFSI transport loan in the United Kingdom.

The 28 year European Investment Bank loan will finance purchase of new rolling stock by Rock Rail East Anglia PLC for use by Abellio East Anglia Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dutch national rail company Nederlandse Spoorwegen.

Funding of these new trains was led by Rock Rail and SL Capital with additional co-investment equity being provided by GLIL, the Greater Manchester Pension Fund and London Pensions Fund Authority infrastructure investment joint venture.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • BMW and Toyota agree mid- to long-term research collaboration
    March 26, 2012
    BMW Group and Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) concerning a mid- to long-term collaboration on next-generation environment-friendly technologies.
  • Trump unveils U.S. infrastructure investment
    February 13, 2018
    U.S. president Donald Trump has announced that he wants Congress to approve $200bn (£144bn) bill, which he said will stimulate another $1.3tn (£9bn) in improvements as part of his plan to fix the country’s infrastructure. One intention of the proposal is to eliminate regulatory barriers and offer more flexibility to transportation projects that are currently required to seek Federal review and approval. $100bn (£72bn) of the proposed bill will create an Incentives Program to spur additional dedicated fund
  • Harmonisation of Europe's ITS deployment still unbalanced
    January 31, 2012
    Dean Herenda, Chairman of the EasyWay project, talks about the progress made and the progress still to be made in harmonising ITS deployment across the European Union. "The deployment and use of ITS in road transport across Europe was and still is unbalanced" Although Europe can be proud of being home to some of the world's most advanced ITS solutions, the relative disparities between Member States of the European Union (EU) in terms of the extent and technological sophistication of deployments actually sta
  • DG MOVE’s Christos Economou on the EU’s vision for road transport
    July 26, 2013
    Christos Economou, Deputy Head of Unit dealing with land transport within the European Commission’s DG MOVE, describes a new framework for road charging in Europe to Jason Barnes. Within the European Union (EU), two Directives shape the legislative framework on road charging. Directive 1999/62/EC sets up a number of rules to make sure that national road charging schemes do not distort competition on the internal market or discriminate between hauliers. It is misleadingly called ‘Eurovignette’ after the comm