Extra trains planned for Ed Sheeran dates

Published on: Tuesday, 16 July 2019
Last updated: Tuesday, 16 July 2019

Greater Anglia has arranged extra late night trains to help Ed Sheeran fans go home after his Ipswich concerts during the August Bank Holiday weekend.

As well as putting on two extra trains to Norwich and three to Colchester and London, the train company is also changing timings and making trains longer on some services.

Ed Sheeran is playing at Chantry Park on 23, 24, 25 and 26 August, with some of the shows already sold out.

Greater Anglia has worked closely with the concert organisers to see where fans are travelling from to get to the concert, as well as conducting a travel survey.

Research showed that of Ed Sheeran fans travelling by train to the concert were planning to use the mainline from stations north and south of Ipswich.

The exact revised timetable will be released in coming weeks, but the additional trains will depart Ipswich between 10.30pm and midnight.

Greater Anglia is also drafting in extra staff, land sheriffs and installing barriers to manage the large number of travellers expected at Ipswich station.

There is no engineering works on the line between Norwich-Ipswich-Colchester and London that weekend.

James Steward, Greater Anglia area customer service manager responsible for Ipswich station said: “We’ve worked very closely with the concert organisers to find out what adjustments we need to make to our service to ensure Ed Sheeran fans get home after the concerts.

“We are expecting trains and Ipswich station to be very busy, so we would ask concert-goers to be patient as they may have to queue to get into the station.

“We are pleased to be able to help fans enjoy Suffolk’s most successful pop star by stepping up our service. It’s a fantastic boost to Ipswich that Ed Sheeran is playing four nights in the town.”

Fans travelling together could take advantage of special offers such as Groupsave, where groups of between three and nine people receive a 1/3 discount off their ticket price – provided they travel together for both journeys.