A Greater Anglia train. Credit: Greater Anglia Greater Anglia is advising rail passengers to avoid using its trains on Thursday 15 September as 90 per cent of services will not be running due to a train drivers’ strike. The 24-hour strike – if it goes ahead – will leave Greater Anglia unable to run any services between Cambridge and London Liverpool Street and there will be no services on any branch or regional lines either. The only services running – all heavily reduced – will be the Norwich-London intercity service, a stopping service between Colchester and London Liverpool Street, the Southend Victoria-London Liverpool Street service and the Stansted Express between Stansted Airport and London. There will be no rail replacement buses to replace trains not running due to the strike. Other train companies affected by ASLEF strikes on Thursday 15 September are Avanti West Coast, Chiltern Railways, CrossCountry, Great Western Railway, Hull Trains, LNER, London Overground, Northern Trains, Southeastern, TransPennine Express and West Midlands Trains. Morning services on Friday 16 September will also be affected by the strike, with most services starting later than usual at 7/7.30am. Services should be back to normal by early afternoon. Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia managing director said: “We are very sorry that once again our customers will be disrupted by strike action, which this time will affect young people back at school or college after the summer break, commuters, business travellers, students travelling back to university and people hoping to enjoy a late summer day out by train. “With our drivers on strike, we’re only able to run about ten per cent of our usual weekday services, so our advice again is to avoid using our trains. “The rail industry is working hard to resolve these disputes and talks will continue with ASLEF in an effort to avert the strike.” Anyone who has booked a ticket to travel on Thursday 15 September can travel on Wednesday 14, Friday 16 or Saturday 17 September instead, swap to another date or get a free refund. Greater Anglia is currently finalising details of the timetable to operate on Thursday 15 September. Further information is available from greateranglia.co.uk/strikes which will be updated as details are finalised.
