An apology to our customers

We're extremely sorry for the disruption that has affected services on a number of days this week (especially on the Great Eastern Main Line). We recognise that the delays suffered by many passengers have been both inconvenient and very frustrating. We also understand that in some cases the situation was exacerbated by a lack of timely, accurate or consistent information about what was happening. We are under no illusion about the impact of poor performance on our customers and we know that what happened this week was unacceptable.

We have worked together to investigate the causes of the problems, review contingency plans and re-assess customer information provision in the light of these disruptive events. As a result, we have identified the technical faults which caused the overhead line, track and signalling failures which led to the delays and identified the other factors that meant the flow of information was so unsatisfactory.

We are therefore taking the following actions to both try and prevent future disruption and to handle things much better if they do go wrong :

I. Putting in place an enhanced maintenance regime for overhead line equipment to prevent the type of failure which caused the major problems on Tuesday evening

II. Putting in place an enhanced maintenance regime (including a re-organisation of the maintenance team) focused on the track and signalling on the approaches to London Liverpool Street station

III. Implementing improved customer information procedures to provide better information about the extent of delays, the revised service pattern and expected timescales before normal services are likely to resume

IV. Increasing the numbers of customer information staff in place during the morning and evening peak periods

V. Upgrading the London Liverpool Street departure board to improve the accuracy of information about train departures during service disruption

Once again, we apologise for letting you down. We are absolutely committed to providing the best possible service, day in, day out and we are determined to avoid a repetition of this week's problems. We have listened to your comments and we are taking the immediate steps outlined to raise our standards and provide a better service more consistently.

Jamie Burles - Managing Director - Abellio Greater Anglia

Richard Schofield - Managing Director - Network Rail