Greater Anglia is adding more weekday services from Monday 7 February in anticipation of more people travelling to work in the wake of Plan B restrictions being lifted. More trains will run on all the main routes into London Liverpool Street from Ipswich, Colchester, Chelmsford, Southend Victoria, Cambridge, Bishop’s Stortford and Hertford East. The intercity service between Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester and London Liverpool Street will become half hourly for most of the day, only operating hourly for parts of the evening. A normal regional weekday service will operate, including four additional peak services on the Norwich to Great Yarmouth line, which will be reinstated. The Stansted Express service between London and Stansted Airport will continue with mostly two trains an hour but with three trains an hour at certain times. The company has seen a steady increase in passenger numbers since the Government lifted Plan B restrictions – including removing work from home guidance – with numbers expected to grow in coming weeks as companies prepare to welcome workers back into offices. Greater Anglia’s commuter numbers are expected to reflect widely reported changes to working patterns, with people doing a mixture of working from home and going into the office, and mid-week days being the most popular for travel. Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia managing director, said: “We’re pleased to be to welcoming customers back, whether they’re travelling to work or school and college, or for a fun leisure trip. We’re aiming to match the number of services we run to the number of passengers using them. “We want to provide a safe, reliable and punctual service for our customers, but we also want to provide the best possible value for taxpayers as we are now funded entirely by the government and so ultimately taxpayers. “Throughout the pandemic, we have altered our services depending on passenger numbers and government guidance. “Although like everyone we hope the pandemic is nearing an end and that we are approaching a more normal period, we will continue to monitor passenger numbers and make any further adjustments to our services if necessary. “It’s safe to travel on our trains, even when it’s busy, as we have good ventilation on board and we will continue with our enhanced cleaning and sanitisation. “We’re asking passengers to continue to wear face coverings on our trains and stations, following government advice to wear them in busy places. “We look forward to seeing more and more people travelling by train again over the months ahead and to providing the best possible service for them.” Greater Anglia’s weekend timetable remains unchanged. Passengers can check train times on the Greater Anglia website. Anyone who has tickets for a train which is no longer running as a result of these timetable changes can catch the service either immediately before or after it or can apply for a refund free of charge.
