Greater Anglia warns of weekend disruption as rail strikes enter third day
A Greater Anglia train. Credit: Greater Anglia Rail services will be extremely limited this Saturday with last trains leaving London by 5.30pm and disruption continuing into Sunday due to a third day of strikes. Greater Anglia is asking people to only travel if absolutely necessary and reminding them that there will be no trains – or rail replacement buses – back to the region in the evening. The company will be running a heavily reduced timetable with no trains on regional or branch lines. A skeleton service with far fewer trains and seats than normal will operate on some routes to and from London Liverpool Street, from 7.30am on Saturday, with last trains leaving London between 3.25pm and 5.30pm. It is possible that some stations may have to be closed at very short notice due to a lack of staff – in which case trains would not be able to call at them and there would be no rail replacement bus service to them either. Passengers should expect severe disruption, plan their journeys in advance and make alternative plans where possible – especially if they are going to concerts and festivals across the region this weekend including Red Hot Chili Peppers at the London Stadium, Mick Jagger at Hyde Park and Ed Sheeran at Wembley Stadium on Saturday evening. On Sunday, disruption from the 24-hour strike will have a knock-on effect with first trains starting later than usual, between just before 7am to 7.30am. Full service will not be restored until early afternoon. All normal Sunday evening services should run as normal. Timetables for this weekend are now available on the Greater Anglia website. Train drivers’ union ASLEF has called another 24-hour strike among Greater Anglia train drivers for Saturday 2 July. Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia managing director, said: “Please only travel if it’s absolutely necessary on Saturday when strikes are due to take place. “If you do travel, you should expect severe disruption, so plan ahead and make alternative travel arrangements if you can. “We will not be running any of our usual evening services, so if you’re going out to a festival, concert or event, please make alternative arrangements. “We’re not replacing services cancelled by strike action with buses – after the last trains have departed there will be nothing available until Sunday morning, when services will be starting later as the effect of the strike ripples through to the next day. “We are very sorry for the inconvenience caused to customers by this industrial action. “Work is continuing to try to resolve the dispute as soon as possible.” The RMT industrial action on Saturday includes Network Rail signal and maintenance teams as well as Greater Anglia’s conductors, train cleaners, catering and station staff. 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 at all stations which are staffed. Greater Anglia will provide alternative transport for people needing passenger assistance from stations which are unstaffed but still served by trains. There will be no alternative transport from stations where no trains are running on Saturday. Travellers needing passenger assistance are strongly advised to contact Greater Anglia’s passenger assist service if travel is absolutely necessary on strike days. 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 25 June:
- 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 starting at 7.30am and finishing at 6.30pm on the following routes:
- Norwich to London Liverpool Street intercity service – one train an hour, with first and last trains from Norwich to Liverpool Street at 08.00 and 16.00, and first and last trains from Liverpool Street to Norwich at 08.30 and 16.30.
- Colchester to London Liverpool Street stopping service – one stopping train an hour plus one intercity service an hour, with the first and last stopping services from Colchester to London Liverpool Street at 07.30 and 16.25 and from London Liverpool Street to Colchester at 08.00 and 17.00.
- Southend Victoria to London Liverpool Street – two trains an hour with first and last trains from Southend Victoria to London Liverpool Street at 07.30 and 17.13, and from London Liverpool Street to Southend Victoria at 07.47 and 17.30.
- Stansted Express Stansted Airport to London Liverpool Street – two trains an hour, with first and last trains from Stansted Airport to London Liverpool Street at 07.42 and 17.12 and from London Liverpool Street to Stansted Airport at 08.10 and 17.40
- Cambridge to London Liverpool Street with the first trains from Cambridge to London Liverpool Street at 08.20 and 16.20 and from Cambridge North to London Liverpool Street at 09.13 and 16.13. First and last trains from Liverpool Street to Cambridge/Cambridge North at 08.25 and 16.25/15.25.
The company will make an announcement about which services will run on Saturday 2 July as soon as plans for that day are complete and those details are available.