How are the national rail strikes going to affect my Greater Anglia train?

National rail strikes are due to take place on Tuesday 21, Thursday 23 and Saturday 25 June – and if they go ahead they’re going to severely disrupt our services. None of our regional and branch lines trains will run. A very limited service will operate elsewhere – but only between 7.30am and 6.30pm - when all trains must have arrived at their final destination. You should only travel if absolutely necessary and if you do travel you should expect severe disruption and plan ahead. Find alternative ways to travel if you can.

So what services are running?

We are running a very limited service on our lines to and from Liverpool Street from 7.30am, with the last trains finishing their journeys by 6.30pm. So if you’re travelling back home from Liverpool Street your last train will leave London in time to reach its final destination by 6.30pm, so that could be before the end of your working day. There will be far fewer trains and they will be less frequent than normal. We won’t be running any services at all on any of our regional or branch lines. This is why our advice is to only travel if absolutely necessary and expect severe disruption. We are very sorry about the inconvenience this may cause you. See more details of what’s running and what’s not running plus first and last train times.

Does this mean that you’ll be running buses instead of trains?

No – there will be no rail replacement buses. There is just a very limited train service on some lines and no service at all on others, sorry.

Will everything be back to normal on the days when there isn’t strike action?

Unfortunately, there will be a knock-on effect on the day after each strike. Services the day after each strike will start later than usual and the network won’t be back to normal full service until early afternoon. Some morning peak trains will be cancelled and the majority of services will not start until after 7-7.30am, later still on branch lines. Please check before you travel on our website, app or social media.

I’ve got an exam during the week of strikes – can I catch the train?

Exams are very stressful at the best of times – it would be an idea to make alternative plans to get school or college rather than go by train on this occasion if you can. As we mentioned, our service is heavily reduced where it is running and we are expecting disruption on the day as well as on the days before and after strikes.

Can I still get passenger assistance on strike days?

We are advising all customers to only travel if necessary and to expect severe disruption because we are only able to run a very limited service on some routes to and from London Liverpool Street. Assistance will be available at those stations which are staffed. Where we are unable to staff the station but are operating a train service we will provide alternative transport. There will be no alternative transport available from stations where no services are running due to the strikes. We would strongly advise you to contact our passenger assist service to plan your journey.

I bought a ticket before the strikes were announced, can I get a refund?

If you can’t travel on the day you were planning, you can swap it for a future date or use it the day before or two days after the original date. You can also apply for a refund free of charge from the retailer where you bought your ticket. If you’ve got a season ticket, you can claim a refund through the Delay Repay scheme for the journey you were unable to make or hand your season ticket in and get a refund for what you haven’t used.

Can I see the timetable for the service you will be running?

Timetables for strike days and other affected days will be available on the Greater Anglia website from Friday 17 June, initially for Tuesday and Thursday and subsequent updates added as soon as they’re available.