Greater Anglia has issued travel advice regarding industrial action by unions ASLEF and RMT taking place on Friday the 1st and Saturday the 2nd of September. The rail operator is advising customers planning to travel during the strike days to check their travel plans prior to making their journey.

Friday the 1st of September will see action taken by ASLEF, which will see a substantially reduced rail service only operating on major routes. Services which can run on Friday will start later than usual and also finish earlier.

Saturday the 2nd of September will see both ASLEF and RMT taking action short of a strike and will also impact train services. Most routes will see trains operating between 07.00 and 23.00, however, some routes will be closed.

Customers are advised that during the industrial action, there is a risk of short-notice service changes or cancellations and that the days following the strike action will see services begin later than usual.

The strike action taking place on the 1st and 2nd of September will affect rail operators across the country.

Customers who require passenger assistance arrangements will be able to do so as normal. However, advice is given to plan journeys during the strike in advance along with booking assistance.

Friday the 1st of September will see only the following routes operating: 

Cambridge to London Liverpool Street will run approximately every two hours:

• Departures from London will see the first train at 9.58 and the last at 18.58
• Departures from Cambridge will see the first train at 8.20 and the last at 17.20

Norwich to London Liverpool Street will run hourly:

• Departures from London will see the first train at 10.30 and the last at 21.30
• Departures from Norwich will see the first train at 8.00 and the last at 19.00

Stansted Airport to London Liverpool Street will run hourly:

• Departures from London will see the first train at 4.40 and the last at 23.25
• Departures from Stansted Airport will see the first train at 5.43 and the last at 23.45

Colchester to London Liverpool Street will run hourly:

• Departures from London will see the first train at 10.00 and the last at 22.00
• Departures from Colchester will see the first train at 8.13 and the last at 20.13

Southend Victoria to London Liverpool Street will run hourly:

• Departures from London will see the first train at 9.47 and the last at 23.45
• Departures from Southend Victoria will see the first train at 8.13 and the last at 22.00

Saturday the 2nd of September:

Saturday the 2nd will see Greater Anglia’s services operational between 7.00 and 23.00, with a good number of routes experiencing normal to near normal services during that time. However, some routes will experience reduced frequency and the following routes will see no services running at all:

• Ipswich to Felixstowe
• Colchester to Walton-on-the-Naze via Colchester Town
• Marks Tey to Sudbury
• Manningtree to Harwich Town
• Bishop’s Stortford to Stratford
• Hertford East to London Liverpool Street
• Meridian Water to Stratford

The following routes will also run at a reduced frequency as follows:

• Braintree to London Liverpool Street will run hourly
• Cambridge/Cambridge North to London Liverpool Street will run hourly
• Clacton-on-Sea to London Liverpool Street will run hourly
• Colchester Town to Colchester will run every 35 minutes
• Ipswich to London Liverpool Street will run hourly
• Southend Victoria to London Liverpool Street will run every 20 minutes
• Stansted Airport to London Liverpool Street will run every 30 minutes
• Ipswich to Lowestoft will run two hourly
• Bury St Edmunds to Cambridge will run hourly
• Bury St Edmunds to Peterborough will run two hourly
• Norwich to Great Yarmouth will run hourly
• Norwich to Lowestoft will run hourly
• Norwich to Sheringham will run hourly
• Norwich to Stansted Airport will run hourly
• Wickford to Southminster will run every 80 minutes

Passengers heading to the Ipswich Town v Cardiff City match on Saturday the 2nd of September are also advised to check their travel plans ahead and prior to making their journey as both industrial action and engineering work will be taking place on the Greater Anglia network.

Planned engineering work taking place on the Greater Anglia network will also affect services over the coming weekend on Saturday, the 2nd and Sunday, the 3rd of September and will involve track and overhead line work undertaken on the rail operator’s network. During the period of work, a Rail Replacement Bus service will be in operation for the following locations:

• Between Norwich and Ipswich (direct bus: 90 minutes / all-stations bus: two hours)
• Between Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds

To find out more about services for Greater Anglia routes over the 1st and 2nd of September, please visit National Rail Enquiries or Greater Anglia’s website.

Please note that Journey Planners are updated 3 days prior to each strike date with exact train times.

Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia’s managing director, said:

“With industrial action taking place on Saturday 2 September, there will be some alterations and cancellations across our network, plus some routes where no trains will run at all, while on 1 September it is expected that trains only will operate on four routes, with no services at all on the rest of the network.”

“We are sorry for any inconvenience caused by these service alterations and advise customers to plan ahead and check before they travel.”