Published on: Wednesday, 18 November 2020
Last updated: Thursday, 19 November 2020
Greater Anglia is giving rail passengers the opportunity to have their say about proposed changes to the timetable on the Great Eastern Main Line and connecting routes.
The rail company is just starting a 12-week public consultation to seek views about a new timetable due to come into effect in December 2021.
The timetable is being slightly adjusted so that Greater Anglia can make the most of the positive impact of new trains – including improved journey times and better performance.
Journey times on some routes could be a little faster – usually a couple of minutes – but in some cases by as much as five to seven minutes for longer journeys, such as Norwich to London, due to quicker acceleration and braking.
Other planned key changes include changing the time of the Monday to Saturday express Norwich in 90/Ipswich in 60 services to 08.00 and 09.00 from Norwich, calling at Ipswich at 08.33 and 09.33, and returning from London later in the day, with one train between 17.00 and 17.15 and the other between 19.00 and 19.15.
A Braintree to Witham shuttle is proposed to operate off-peak, in response to customer and stakeholder feedback calling for the service to be more robust and reliable.
To find out how to take part in the consultation, which closes on Friday 12 February, check greateranglia.co.uk/december21tt.
Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia managing director said: "We’re really keen to hear from customers and stakeholders to help us to fine tune the final timetable.
"We’re not proposing major changes in this timetable - further changes and improvements depend on infrastructure capacity and capability.
"However, by speeding up some services, altering some timings, adding some extra services and other changes such as using new longer trains will make our services even more reliable and improve customers’ journeys.
"We want to do everything we can to help our region thrive and develop sustainably in the years ahead as we recover from the pandemic. Rail is one of the greenest forms of transport and we want to make it quicker and more reliable and punctual."
Greater Anglia is introducing new trains on every single service on the network. The first new trains went into passenger service in July 2019.
Routes operated completely by new trains are the Norwich-London intercity route; Stansted Airport-London; Norwich-Cambridge/Stansted Airport, Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth and Sheringham; Ipswich-Cambridge, Peterborough, Felixstowe and Lowestoft; and the Marks Tey-Sudbury route.
All of Greater Anglia’s new trains are longer, with more seats, USB and plug points, fast free wifi, improved accessibility features, better passenger information screens and dedicated bicycle spaces.
They also have many green features including regenerative braking which delivers energy back into the electrical supply network, rather than wasting the energy, through heat, as is the case with conventional systems and lower emissions.
Greater Anglia is expected to make similar changes to the West Anglia timetable in 2022.