page_title: West Anglia Great Northern
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: West Anglia Great Northern / History
caption_attribution_description: WAGN Railway Class 317/6 No. 317663 at London Liverpool Street
context_page_description: West Anglia Great Northern was a train operating company in England owned by National Express, that operated the West Anglia Great Northern franchise from January 1997 until March 2004 and the Great Northern franchise from April 2004 until March 2006.
context_section_description: Prism Rail was awarded the West Anglia Great Northern franchise and commenced operations on 5 January 1997.
  West Anglia Great Northern made an open access application to extend services from Peterborough to  Doncaster but this was rejected by the Office of Rail Regulation.
  In July 2000, West Anglia Great Northern was included in the sale of Prism Rail to National Express.
  In 2002 as part of a franchise reorganisation by the Strategic Rail Authority, it was announced that the franchise would be split with the West Anglia part merged into the Greater Anglia franchise. In December 2003, the Strategic Rail Authority awarded the Greater Anglia franchise to National Express, with the West Anglia services transferring to One on 1 April 2004.  After being granted a two-year franchise extension, the Great Northern services were retained with the company now referring to itself as WAGN rather than West Anglia Great Northern.
caption: Refurbished Class 317 in the original WAGN livery at Liverpool Street station in 2006
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