Here’s the latest update from Greater Anglia (GA), with information on performance; travel advice; train times over the Festive period and our new trains programme. Performance It’s been another very good week for performance, with punctuality averaging 95.0% across our network – keeping up the excellent track record of 2021 as a whole. It’s been a record-breaking year for performance, thanks to the dedication, focus and commitment of our teams and colleagues at Network Rail, Stadler, Alstom and our other rail industry partners. We’re fully focused on maintaining these high standards in 2022. Travel advice (face coverings now mandatory on stations and trains again, unless exempt) There have been no changes to travel advice this week. As previously advised, the wearing of face coverings on stations and trains is mandatory again, as part of the drive to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the light of the new omicron variant. Whilst the government has advised people to work from home where practical, there have been no associated adjustments to specific rail travel guidance. All train operators are operating in line with new government requirements. Customers therefore must wear face coverings on busy stations and on busy trains (unless they are exempt) and failure to do so may result in a fine (initially of £200, but potentially up to £6400 for repeated non-compliance). Our experience is that compliance with the new rules is generally very high and we will continue to remind customers of the current position through information at stations, on trains, in announcements, via social media and on line. Full details of the current coronavirus advice and guidance are available on the government website. Please note that face coverings also remain mandatory on public transport in London, in Wales and in Scotland. Across the entire rail network customers travelling by train can travel with confidence, knowing that we are taking all the appropriate steps to make their journey safe, clean and straight forward. We remain fully focused on maintaining an excellent standard of service for everyone taking the train. Our actions are in line with our safer travel pledge, which includes providing appropriate services and capacity, additional cleaning, making it easier to keep your hands clean and providing information to help you travel safely. There is still plenty of space on the vast majority of services but, as previously highlighted, at busier times we are encouraging customers to use the full capacity of the train, as most of the services which might be busy in one or two carriages have more space further down the train. Some routes, especially at peak times, may also have convenient alternative services with more capacity available, either not long before or not long after the train you were originally planning. On our website we have our less busy trains tool, which we’ve recently revised and updated to make it even more user-friendly, which lists services with fewer passengers (https://www.greateranglia.co.uk/travel-information/less-busy-trains). If you can be flexible, you can then adjust your journey accordingly, if that works for you. We continue to monitor to all services on a daily basis and review service frequency and capacity on the basis of the emerging trends, in line with the prevailing government guidance. The government is also encouraging everyone who is currently eligible to get their vaccinations or booster jabs. We continue to deliver our additional cleaning measures – including more train cleaners, new PacVac equipment for turnaround train cleaning during the day and special testing equipment to carry out random hygiene tests on trains (to help us raise standards even further) – as well as cleaning every single carriage with fogging guns (which disinfect all surfaces, including seats, arm rests, grab handles and windows) to supplement the extra cleaning already being implemented in these high contact areas. We also continue to carry out our random checks for coronavirus on our trains and our extra cleaning measures at stations, where the fogging guns come in handy for larger indoor areas, such as waiting rooms. Festive period train service alterations As we outlined on Monday, we have made some temporary timetable changes to reflect the impact of the rise in coronavirus cases, the linked reduction in demand, the changed demand over the Festive period and our commitment to provide a consistent service for customers, despite the impact of more members of our team being off due to Covid. We are also now entering the main holiday period when, as usual, there are service alterations due to revised travel and working patterns, along with the impact of major engineering work projects. The details are all on the website, but the headlines are as follows : Christmas Eve : Trains finish earlier in the evening than normal Christmas Day : No train services operate Boxing Day : The only GA train service operating is a half hourly Stansted Express service between Tottenham Hale and Stansted Airport 27/28 December : Sunday-style service, but with major engineering work between Colchester and Shenfield (and on the Braintree and Sudbury branches) and also in the Stratford area affecting services from Bishops Stortford, Hertford East and Meridian Water to Stratford 29-31 December : Saturday-style service in operation 1 January : Saturday-style service, but with major engineering work between Audley End and Cambridge and also in the Stratford area affecting services from Bishops Stortford, Hertford East and Meridian Water to Stratford 2-3 January : Sunday-style service, but with major engineering work in the Stratford area affecting services from Bishops Stortford, Hertford East and Meridian Water to Stratford 4 January onwards : Amended weekday service in line with the service we’ve been running this week As ever, all details are provided on line, so if you are planning to travel over this period, please check your train times in advance. New trains We’ve now accepted 44 of our new Alstom suburban trains (see picture) for passenger service, meaning we now have almost a third of those trains in traffic. That means that, combined with the 58 new Stadler trains (38 regional bi-mode trains, 10 intercity electric trains and 10 Stansted Express electric trains) already in operation, we now have 102 new trains in service, of the 191 we are receiving to completely replace all our older trains. Our new train fleet has already clocked up over 15 million miles in service, delivering a transformed service for customers on many of our routes, with key benefits such as more seats, a more comfortable travelling environment, air conditioning, wifi, plug and USB points, better lighting and much improved accessibility features. They are also contributing to our best-ever performance levels, providing quicker acceleration and braking and greater resilience, as well as enabling other service upgrades, such as the direct Norwich to Stansted Airport service and more Sunday services on some local routes. Customer and stakeholder feedback continues to be extremely positive and we look forward to more and more of our new trains entering service in 2022. And finally….. Thanks, as ever, to colleagues across Greater Anglia for again providing a very good service for our customers and communities across East Anglia, with the usual valuable support from colleagues at Network Rail, Stadler, Alstom and our other rail industry partners. Thanks also to you for all your support and engagement over the past 12 months. With very best wishes for the Festive Season and for 2022 !
