BRAND-NEW GA Class 720 Reviewed! - Greater Anglia's Bombardier Aventra Commuter Fleet

**VIDEO WAS FILMED PURSUANT TO ALL RELEVANT LAWS AT THE TIME**

Hello, and welcome back to another video on my channel, and the first of my extra Sunday videos for December! This week's train trip report video is a special one, as I am reviewing the brand-new Greater Anglia Class 720 'Aventra' unit by Bombardier Derby, on the Southend Victoria to London Liverpool Street route.

This train only entered service a few days ago, so it is fresh into service. This fleet forms a large chunk of Greater Anglia's full stock replacement, with 133x five car units being ordered for routes between London and Cambridge, Hertford East, Ipswich, Clacton-on-the-Sea, and Southend Victoria. The trains are 100mph (160km/h), and are built to be very high-capacity, one point that they certainly got right! They are part of Bombardier's 'Aventra' family, which has already received orders for over 2500 carriages in the UK - convenient as the trains are built at Bombardier's Litchurch Lane plant in Derby, England.

The route for today's trip starts at Southend Victoria, the station for Greater Anglia's services in Southend, and just a short walk away from the competing c2c station of Southend Central. Quickly after departure, the train arrives at Southend Airport, which is almost in walking distance from the centre of Southend. After passing through many suburban stations, including Wickford (the junction for the Southminster branch that will also soon see these Class 720 units), we join the Great Eastern Mainline at Shenfield. After this it's a fast run towards London, arriving into Stratford (Regional), one of the biggest interchanges in London, before finally terminating at London Liverpool Street.

Unfortunately the SD card used while recording this video corrupted, leaving some strange artifacts during playback, and because some footage was lost completely, some loss of continuity. However, thanks to CC licensed images online, I was still available to make something out of what I had. Special thanks to the following files:

I have to admit that I was very pleasantly surprised by these fantastic units, find out why in the video!

#greateranglia #class720 #aventra #tripreport
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Journey Details:
Origin: Southend Victoria
Destination: London Liverpool Street
Company: Greater Anglia
Train: UK Class 720 'Bombardier Aventra'
Accommodation: Standard Class Seat (2nd)
Distance: 41 miles / 66 kilometres
Price: £12.55
Time: 1h03m

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Find me elsewhere:

[allanralston]

The darker central ceiling definitely reduces the glare and looks good too

[bunglebanks]

I've lived right next to this line for my whole life, I'm so used to the sound that the 321's make, I can tell when the 720 rolls by, its so much quieter! I've filmed them at speed going past my house, haven't been on one yet, but will soon, thanks for the video

[rahill-]

Good looking train and compare to other trainsets this train have more features and nice to see open space for wheelchair and bicycles . ✌️✌️

[hoof]

Nice moquette though. And anything leaving Southend has to be good 😁

[trainsonthebrain]

Nice, been looking forward to seeing these coming into service. Absolute bugger when an SD card goes, rescued it’s well though!

[pikachu]

Nice to see 720s entered passenger service, after TfL Rail's 345s and Overground's 710s. Waiting to see SWR Aterios enter service soon.

[TPhype-Discovery]

I really think a lot of people underestimate how good Aventras are, simply just because they are made of plastic. They are actually very good trains, I've been on them myself and I would be happy to go on them anytime.

[stuartbuffery]

Excellent video 👍 looking forward to travelling on these in safer times.

[LB-yhrm]

These will be a huge improvement. It’s a shame that every single great eastern franchise has neglected their stock. The Renatus upgrade to the 321s I feel came way too late. For example, SWT upgraded their 455s at least 10 years ago to a higher spec with upgraded traction equipment etc

But I sense those airline seats won’t be popular.

[trevordickenson]

Was good to see inside of these and other new trains you've reviewed. The aisle looked very narrow on the video which you commented on, for anyone of a large size would have a problem unless they sit in the disabled area.

[MACROPARTICLE]

I like how the new trains used by Greater Anglia have an aerodynamic nose profile. I wonder why Bombardier's abandoning it for their newer Aventra products.

[Transpennine]

We would Kill for these trains up here in the north!

[christophernoble]

Good to hear about the excellent ride quality. The Hitachi 800s suffer from the DfTs absurd specification of a 26 metre coach length which on tight curves would foul the loading gauge resulting in the hard suspension which had to be employed to prevent this. Muppets!

[neilmartin]

Nothing wrong with the video mate. Another great review, many thanks.

[stephenvince]

Just travelled on one. All the class and style of a public convenience.

[nathanw]

Nice! I've been on the 720 already in SCR lol!

[quicksesh]

2 years on and these trains are proving their worth. Such an improvement on the 321 and the 360's but one or two of them are now going AWOL due to technical issues, showing that Alstom (having taken over Bombardier) are not on the ball on the maintenance side of things. That said the 720 units running for Greater Anglia are far superior to the Elizabeth lines 345's (which are from the same family) as the TFL units seem to be a light weight 9 car construction meant to allow fast acceleration in the service, but at the risk of more mechanical maladies (for ever seeing the 345's in the Ilford maintenance depot) but also poorer NVH.

[joemercedeschannel]

You should try out the WMR 730's when they enter service at the end of this year and the start of 2024. They will be so much better in terms of seating configuration as they have 2+2 instead of 3+2

[nathanwaters]

What! The Class 720s now are in passenger service!? I didn’t know that.

[stepheng]

Great video as usual Superlabs. It looks like I will have to shed a bit of weight to walk through this aisles look too narrow!