Greater Anglia warns of severe disruption on Saturday due to train drivers’ strike

A Greater Anglia train. Credit: Greater Anglia Greater Anglia is urging people to avoid travelling on its trains this Saturday, as the rail service is due to be severely disrupted due to a strike by train drivers. Timetables are now available for this weekend’s Greater Anglia services. Over 90 per cent of Greater Anglia’s trains will not run on Saturday 2 July as members of train drivers’ union ASLEF carry out a 24-hour strike on the Greater Anglia network. There will be no regional or branch line services on Saturday. Other services will be dramatically reduced. There will be no Greater Anglia trains between Cambridge North, Cambridge and London Liverpool Street, but Great Northern will be running its usual Saturday services between Cambridge and London Kings Cross. Where trains are running, there will be a severely reduced service. The Norwich-London Liverpool Street intercity service will be limited just to six trains in each direction across the whole day, with the last train back to Norwich at 21.30. The Colchester-London Liverpool Street and Stansted Express services will also have reduced hours and significantly fewer trains, with later start and earlier finish times than normal, with the last train back from London to Colchester at 22.30 and from London to Stansted Airport at 21.55. Trains between Southend Victoria and London Liverpool Street will run across the usual operating hours, but with far fewer trains than normal – just one train an hour – and the last train from London back to Southend at 00.50. There will be no rail replacement buses to replace trains not running because of the strikes. Sunday services will start later in the morning than usual as the 24-hour strike has a knock-on effect into the next day. Passengers should check before they travel. First train times for the majority of services will be from 07.00/07.30, with the service getting back to normal by early afternoon. Anyone who has pre-booked tickets to travel on strike days can change them, use them to travel on the day before or up to two days after their original travel date, or apply for a refund by going back to their original retailer. Passenger assistance will be available as usual for all trains which are running. Passengers are recommended to plan their journey and book assistance in advance. People travelling to the Guns ‘N Roses concert at Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium will not be able to get to the stadium or back on Greater Anglia trains. Suggested alternatives include using the Victoria line on the Underground or using London Overground to get there. The strike will also affect people travelling to see Adele at Hyde Park on Saturday, who are also advised to make alternative arrangements. Services from other train operators in the region including c2c, GTR, Cross Country and EMR  are due to run as planned on Saturday. Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia managing director, said: “Please avoid travelling on our trains this Saturday. Unfortunately, with our drivers on strike, it’s only possible to run a heavily reduced service and only on some routes. “We can’t replace all the trains not running due to the strike with rail replacement buses, so it will just be an extremely limited train service running on Saturday, so we strongly advise passengers to make alternative arrangements. “We are very sorry for the disruption this strike causes our customers.  We know that many of our customers will have been looking forward to travelling on Saturday to see family and friends, for days out to the coast, for holidays and for the many concerts and sporting events in London. “Work is continuing at an industry level to try to resolve the dispute as soon as possible.” More information about how industrial action will affect rail journeys and how to apply for ticket changes or refunds are available on the Greater Anglia website. There will be no services running on the following routes on Saturday 2 July:

• Between London Liverpool Street and Cambridge North
• Between Norwich and Cambridge/Stansted Airport, Sheringham, Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth
• Between Ipswich and Cambridge, Peterborough, Felixstowe and Lowestoft
• Between Marks Tey and Sudbury
• All other branch lines: Hertford East to Broxbourne, Braintree to Witham, Southminster to Wickford, Harwich Town to Manningtree, Clacton/Walton-on-the-Naze to Colchester, Colchester Town to Colchester, Meridian Water to Stratford.

A very limited and much reduced service – with fewer trains running and so fewer seats available – will run on the following routes:

• Norwich to London Liverpool Street intercity service – six trains in each direction for the whole day, with first and last trains from Norwich to Liverpool Street at 07.00 and 19.00, and first and last trains from Liverpool Street to Norwich at 09.30 and 21.30.
• Colchester to London Liverpool Street stopping service – one stopping train every two hours, plus six intercity services in each direction across the whole day with the first and last stopping services from Colchester to London Liverpool Street at 06.43 and 20.43 and from London Liverpool Street to Colchester at 08.30 and 22.30.
• Southend Victoria to London Liverpool Street – one train an hour with first and last trains from Southend Victoria to London Liverpool Street at 04.00 and 23.00, and from London Liverpool Street to Southend Victoria at 05.36 and 00.50.
• Stansted Express Stansted Airport to London Liverpool Street – one train an hour with first and last trains from Stansted Airport to London Liverpool Street at 05.22 and 21.42 and from London Liverpool Street to Stansted Airport at 04.10 and 21.55