Published on: Friday, 8 March 2019
Last updated: Friday, 8 March 2019
Rail passengers in East Anglia can expect some major improvements this spring, including Norwich to London in 90 minutes and thousands of extra seats for the summer.
Four extra services between Norwich, Ipswich and London Liverpool Street will be speeding up travel between East Anglia and the capital.
Fastest journey times between Norwich and London will be cut to just 90 minutes and it will take just 55-57 minutes to travel between Ipswich and London on these extra four services a day.
There will also be extra summer services provided across the Greater Anglia network, to help locals, visitors and holiday-makers make the most of all that East Anglia has to offer.
Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia managing director said: “We’re very excited to be making these improvements from the start of our May timetable.
“For many years, stakeholders, including MPs and businesses, have been calling for faster journey times between East Anglia and London and now we’re launching the first quicker services with our new May timetable.
“Faster journey times and thousands of extra seats will provide a boost to people who live and work in East Anglia, as well as supporting the regional economy.
“These improvements will be followed in the summer by the first of our brand-new trains coming into service, so it really is going to be a great year for Greater Anglia customers.”
The first faster services between Norwich, Ipswich and London Liverpool Street are due to come into service on Monday 20 May.
The 90-minute services will depart Norwich at 09.00 and 17.00 (calling at Ipswich at 09.33 and 17.33) and London Liverpool Street at 11.00 and 19.00 (calling at Ipswich at 11.55 and 19.57) and will operate on Mondays to Saturdays.
They will shave 12 minutes off the current fastest journey between Norwich and London and cut the fastest journey between Ipswich and London by 4 minutes.
Extra summer services will run on the Norwich-Ipswich-Colchester-London Liverpool Street, Norwich-Lowestoft, Ipswich-Peterborough, Ipswich-Felixstowe, and Norwich-Great Yarmouth routes, when the new timetable comes in on Sunday 19 May.
Other changes introduced in May include some slightly quicker Sunday services between Norwich and London and some minor changes to the weekday timings of evening rush hour services to Clacton, Manningtree and Ipswich.