Published on: Wednesday, 25 September 2019
Last updated: Friday, 1 November 2019
Rail passengers will benefit from a new route, extra services and more seats later this year, as Greater Anglia continues its transformation of the railway in East Anglia, linked to the introduction of a complete fleet of new trains.
The start of the December timetable on Sunday 15 December will herald the introduction of a brand-new service between Norwich and Stansted Airport, giving people in the city a direct rail link to the airport for the first time.
Seven services will operate in each direction Mondays to Fridays, 15 on Saturdays and 13 on Sundays.
And in a boost to rural branch lines, additional services will see trains running hourly on Sundays between Ipswich and Cambridge, Ipswich and Lowestoft and Norwich and Lowestoft.
Services between London Liverpool Street and Cambridge are also to be extended to Cambridge North seven days a week.
In total, Greater Anglia is running 37 additional services per week from the start of the new timetable, delivering around 9,000 extra seats per week.
Other routes have also been improved with all services calling at Prittlewell on the Southend – London Liverpool Street line on Sundays only, and an additional service from Cambridge to Harwich International and Ipswich to Felixstowe on Sundays.
Martin Moran, Greater Anglia’s Commercial and Customer Service Director said: “More services 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 are helping us to transform the railway for the people of East Anglia as we continue the introduction of our brand-new fleet of trains into passenger service.”
The introduction of new trains across the Greater Anglia network, in a £1.4 billion investment programme, is now underway. From now until the end of 2020, new trains are due to replace the existing fleet on every route - providing more seats, more comfort, air conditioning, plug sockets, USB points and better accessibility. They will also be more reliable.
Some other services in the new timetable have been retimed. Passengers are advised to check at greateranglia.co.uk