Train operator, Greater Anglia, has introduced live occupancy information at some rail station car parks to help people with their journeys.

At 14 stations customers can now view current availability at the car park ahead of their visit, as well as expected occupancy for any given time or day of the week based on historical trend data.

The information is available via greateranglia.co.uk and Great Anglia Parking Portal - gaparking.co.uk

Greater Anglia’s Mayflower Line trains will ring with the sound of old sea shanties when singers and pirates jump aboard as part of the Harwich International Sea Shanty Festival, on Saturday 12 October.

Carriages on trains from Manningtree to Harwich will be decorated with a nautical theme with swash-buckling fun on board to encourage festival-goers to get to the event by train.

Children will receive an activity pack and a competition to name the whale and there will even be pirates on board!

Rail passengers in East Anglia can now save more money on great days out thanks to a new partnership between Greater Anglia and East Anglia Pass.

East Anglia Pass is an annual card that gives the named holder discounts to more than 250 attractions across Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire.

It also gives discounts to a range of cinemas, up to 30% off food at restaurants and money saving offers at attractions and shops. Usually the annual pass costs £14.99, but by buying it via Greater Anglia customers pay just £12.99.

A good old-fashioned knees up will get rail passengers smiling when Tom Carradine jumps aboard a train with his Ol’ Joanna for a cockney sing-a-long.

The one-off special train has been organised by the Essex and South Suffolk Community Rail Partnership and will run on Saturday 21 September on the 18.56 from Colchester to Walton on the Naze and return.

Fewer cars descended on Suffolk villages for the FolkEast Festival thanks to a free shuttle that conveyed even more people this year.

Passenger numbers on the free shuttle bus, that met over 90 trains from Wickham Market train station over the 16th to 18th August, were up 39% on last year.

The free shuttle is paid for by the East Suffolk Lines Community Rail Partnership which works in conjunction with the festival every year to encourage people to come by train, rather than pollute and clog the villages around the festival with cars.

A Suffolk organisation’s efforts to get people out walking have been shortlisted for a national award.

The East Suffolk Lines Community Rail Partnership has created a book of 22 walks around Suffolk – covering more than 160 miles - which has seen them nominated for an ‘Influencing Positive Change’ Award at this year’s Community Rail Awards.

The Partnership also hosts guided walks every month, most of which start and finish at the train station, so that people from far and wide can come and enjoy them.