Greater Anglia is advising passengers that its services will be significantly disrupted by industrial action from Friday 29 September until Friday 6 October inclusive.

On Saturday 30 September and Wednesday 4 October, train drivers will take strike action in their trade union ASLEF‘s ongoing campaign for an increase in pay that keeps pace with increases in prices.

Greater Anglia will run no trains on most of its routes, and a heavily reduced service, with only one train per hour, on only four routes: Norwich to London, Colchester to London, Southend Victoria to London, and Stansted Airport to London. The services will start much later and finish earlier than normal.

Due to planned engineering work, buses will replace trains between Norwich and Ipswich on Saturday 30 September. Greater Anglia expects to run a very small number of trains between Cambridge and London on 4 October.

On Friday 29 September, Monday 2 October, Tuesday 3 October, Thursday 5 October, and Friday 6 October, train drivers will take action short of a strike by refusing to work overtime. As Greater Anglia relies on drivers working more than their contracted hours, this will lead to nearly eighty trains on the normal timetable (listed here) being cancelled.

Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia’s managing director, said: “Unfortunately on the strike days on 30 September and 4 October, on most Greater Anglia routes no services will run at all, with just an hourly service for limited hours on the Norwich to London, Colchester to London, Southend Victoria to London, and Stansted Airport to London routes, plus a very small number of Cambridge to London trains on 4 October.

“On the days affected by action short of a strike, the vast majority of services will be running as normal, but there will be some alterations and cancellations across our network.

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