With high temperatures forecast for East Anglia, Greater Anglia and Network Rail have announced joint plans to minimise disruption to rail passengers during hot weather.

Greater Anglia is supporting this year’s Elmer’s Big Parade – the charity art trail in Ipswich this summer, in support of St. Elizabeth’s Hospice.

A beautiful Elmer elephant, Poppy, sponsored by Greater Anglia, is now located outside Ipswich station entrance as part of the trail of 55 large Elmers around the town, which runs until 7 September.

The impressive design, showcasing the lovely Suffolk countryside through which Greater Anglia’s trains operate, was created by Suffolk-based artist Laura Beardsell-Moore.

Greater Anglia has welcomed over £1.1 million of funding to improve cycling facilities at seven stations across the region.

The cash will be spent on installing an extra 510 cycle spaces and improving lighting and CCTV at some of the stations.

The money comes from the Department for Transport’s Cycle Rail Programme and local authorities.

Almost 100,000 water bottles have been refilled for free on the Greater Anglia network in the past year, helping save plastic waste from polluting landfill and oceans.

Last year, Greater Anglia became one of the first train operators in England to offer free water to passengers, investing more than £30,000 in the project.

A new collaborative approach to cutting delays on the railway has led to record punctuality on the Greater Anglia network, with just under 94 per cent of trains running on time last month – the best performance for six years

Since Greater Anglia and Network Rail launched their Every Second Counts campaign six months ago, to tackle every aspect of delays, more trains have been running on time each month.

Greater Anglia is to present East Anglia's Children's Hospices (EACH) with a cheque for £22,000, following a hugely successful charity charter train run by the train operator on 18 May to raise money for the regional charity.

The company will also hand over one of the special "The EACH Express 3" train headboards, which was used on the rail enthusiasts' charity charter train, to EACH.