Published on: Tuesday, 18 December 2018
Last updated: Tuesday, 18 December 2018
Rail passengers are reminded to check before they travel this Christmas and New Year so they’re aware of earlier last train times on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, and timetable changes due to bank holidays and engineering works.
Revised timetables are available in the “service alterations” section of the Greater Anglia website, or on the Greater Anglia app or Twitter.
Ten days of Network Rail engineering works to upgrade overhead lines to make them more reliable starts on Sunday 23 December, on the Norwich to London and the Southend Victoria to London lines.
Network Rail will also be carrying out upgrades to track, points and signalling between Liverpool Street and Bow junction to prevent failures in this key area and so reduce delays across the network.
A rail replacement bus service will run between Ingatestone and Newbury Park, where Greater Anglia customers can use their tickets on the Central Line to Stratford and London Liverpool Street, from Sunday 23 December to Monday 1 January, excluding Christmas Day and Boxing Day when there will be no service at all.
On Sunday 23, Monday 24, Thursday 27 and Friday 28 December, a rail replacement bus service will run between Billericay and Newbury Park via Shenfield. On Saturday 29, Sunday 30, Monday 31 and Tuesday 1 January, rail replacement will run between Southend Victoria and Newbury Park via all Southend Victoria line stations. Buses will also replace trains between Southminster and Wickford via all stations en route.
Buses will replace trains between Felixstowe and Ipswich on Saturday 22 December, from 18.50, and on Sunday 23, Monday 24 and Thursday 27, as Network Rail continue work on installing a loop at Trimley to improve capacity on the line.
The Stansted Express service on Boxing Day will be half-hourly from Tottenham Hale to Stansted Express on Boxing Day due to engineering works in the Stratford area.
Other routes across the rest of the network are free of engineering works over the Christmas period.
There are no trains running on Christmas Day and only a revised Stansted Express service on Boxing Day.
Last trains on Christmas Eve are earlier than the usual Monday timetable. The last train from London Liverpool Street is 19.33 to Norwich, 20.08 to Ipswich, 20.38 to Colchester, 21.00 to Southend Victoria – all using the rail replacement service via the Central line and bus from Newbury Park to Ingatestone - and 22.10 to Cambridge.
On New Year’s Eve, last trains are also earlier than the usual Tuesday timetable. The last train from London Liverpool Street is 22.33 to Norwich, 23.38 to Ipswich, 00.48 to Colchester, 00.58 to Southend Victoria all using the rail replacement service via the Central line and bus from Newbury Park to Ingatestone - and 23.28 to Cambridge.
Bank holiday timetables will be in place on New Year’s Day.
Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia managing director said: “We’d like to wish all of our customers a very happy Christmas. If you are travelling with us, please do check before you travel as some journeys make take longer than normal or arrive or depart at different times than usual.
“If there is engineering works on your journey, we will make sure you still get to your destination, even if part of your travel is by bus.”
Meliha Duymaz, Network Rail’s route managing director for Anglia, said: “We are making a huge investment into Anglia’s rail network to carry out major improvements to rail travel in the region as part of our Railway Upgrade Plan.
“This means there will be changes to train services over the Christmas period. I’d like to thank passengers for their patience while we carry out this work and advise them to check before they travel."