Greater Anglia issues extreme weather warning: do not travel unless absolutely necessary

Published on: Thursday, 1 March 2018
Last updated: Thursday, 1 March 2018

Greater Anglia is warning people not to travel tonight and tomorrow unless absolutely necessary as extreme weather conditions are leading to delays and cancellations.

The company is planning to run a revised timetable tomorrow, with fewer trains than on a normal Friday.

Passengers are advised to check before they travel and allow extra time for their journeys if they have to travel.

Customers who have travelled today, Thursday, are advised to travel back home early, if possible.

Plans have been made to run the following service on Friday:

  • A Saturday service will run on the Great Eastern mainline and some regional/rural routes: Norwich to London; Ipswich, Colchester, Chelmsford and all stations in between to London; Southend Victoria to London Liverpool Street; Norwich to Cambridge; Ipswich to Cambridge, Ipswich to Peterborough; Ipswich to Felixstowe; Harwich to Manningtree; Marks Tey to Sudbury.
  • A shuttle service will operate between Braintree and Witham; Southminster and Wickford, Thorpe-le-soken and Walton-on-the-Naze.
  • An enhanced Sunday service, with earlier first and later last trains than on a Sunday, will operate on the West Anglia route: Cambridge, Bishops Stortford, Harlow and all stations in between to London Liverpool Street, Hertford East to Broxbourne.
  • Stansted Express: three trains an hour, but with the usual weekday first and last trains.
  • No service on the Norwich to Sheringham, Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft lines; and Ipswich to Lowestoft.
  • Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia Managing Director, said: “We apologise for the disruption to our customers. We are dealing with extreme weather which is causing problems to the railway just like on the roads.

    “We have been trying to run the best possible service we can in these extremely testing circumstances. We’ve had extra people at stations helping to clear away snow and ice, making sure customers get on the right trains and de-icing train doors.

    “But the extreme weather is causing problems, which is why we are taking this rare step of advising people not to travel unless absolutely necessary.”

    Meliha Duymaz, Network Rail’s route managing director for Anglia said: "I know how difficult the past few days have been for people trying to travel by train.

    "It has been extremely difficult to run a safe service on our rural lines but our teams have been out in difficult circumstances, working around the clock to keep as much of the railway running as best they can.

    “We will continue to work with Greater Anglia to get all our services up and running as soon as we can, with the safety of passengers and our staff our number one priority."

    Snowdrifts blocking rails and icy temperatures freezing points and train doors have contributed to major disruption on the rail network.

    Treacherous road conditions have caused difficulties for Network Rail and Greater Anglia staff trying to get to remote parts of the network to clear snowdrifts and access infrastructure such as signal boxes and points.

    Customers should continue to check the Greater Anglia website, app and Twitter for the latest updates on the service. Weather forecasters are predicting rising temperatures over the weekend.