History
When the British Rail services operating out of London London Liverpool Street were privatised in January 1997, they were divided up between three train operating companies, Anglia Railways, First Great Eastern and West Anglia Great Northern.
In December 2001 the Strategic Rail Authority announced it planned to combine all of the services operating out of London Liverpool Street into one Greater Anglia Rail Franchise.
In April 2003 the Strategic Rail Authority announced that Arriva, GB Railways and National Express had been shortlisted to bid for the new franchise. In December 2003 the Strategic Rail Authority awarded the franchise to National Express with all the services operated by Anglia Railways and First Great Eastern along with those out of London Liverpool Street by West Anglia Great Northern, transferring to One on 1 April 2004. The franchise was to run until March 2011, with provision for a three-year extension until if performance targets were met.
The area names from the former franchises were initially retained as sub-brands by the new franchise, One Anglia, One Great Eastern and One West Anglia, however other than Stansted Express all services were soon branded as just One, reflecting the union of the three smaller franchises into one single franchise and standing for "Operated by National Express". This led to passenger confusion as they were unable to establish if announcements were for the 07:20 One service, or the 07:21 service resulting in the company's name being omitted from announcements.
As part of a group wide rebranding exercise the franchise was rebranded as National Express East Anglia in February 2008.
In November 2009 the Department for Transport announced that National Express would not be granted the three-year extension that it had met the criteria for, because of it defaulting on the National Express East Coast franchise.
Following the change of government at the 2010 General Election, the Department for Transport announced that all refranchising would be put on hold while a review was conducted into the franchising process. As a result National Express were granted an initial extension until October 2011, followed by another until February 2012.
Read more about this topic: National Express East Anglia
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