A combination of bank holidays, major engineering work, route upgrades and earlier last train times has prompted Greater Anglia to remind rail passengers to check before they travel over Christmas and New Year.

Network Rail is planning a large package of work, including construction programmes, track and overhead line renewals, bridge demolitions and maintenance across the east of England.

Last trains will run earlier on both Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve and there will be a number of timetable changes due to the bank holidays and engineering work.

The Great Eastern Main Line (GEML), which runs between Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester, Chelmsford and London Liverpool Street, will be heavily affected by major engineering work taking place between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day inclusive.  The same applies to the West Anglia Main Line (WAML), running between Cambridge, Audley End, Bishop’s Stortford, and London Liverpool Street.  In addition, there will be changes to services between Cambridge and both Norwich and Ipswich as they will be affected by major engineering in the Cambridge area on Wednesday and Thursday 27 and 28 December. Passengers should be aware that some additional services will be retimed. Details can be found via the journey planner on the Greater Anglia website or app.

Great Anglia has said that there will be significant alterations on these routes.  Bus replacement services will be used for journeys between some stations.  Passengers should also be aware that other operators will also be affected.

Details relating to the various closures on the Greater Anglia network are as follow:

Christmas Eve, Sunday 24 December:

Services will reduce in frequency from 19:00 across the Greater Anglia network with all services stopping by 22:00, except for Stansted Express services.

Final Stansted Express services are as follows:

London Liverpool Street-Stansted Airport: 23:25
Stansted Airport-London Liverpool Street: 23:45

Christmas Day, Monday 25 December:
No service.

Boxing Day, Tuesday 26 December:

London Liverpool Street station will be closed. Stansted Express will operate half-hourly between Tottenham Hale and Stansted Airport.

Ticket acceptance will be in place on London Underground for travel between Tottenham Hale and London Liverpool Street. Passengers with tickets to London Terminals must complete their journey at London Liverpool Street only.

Final Stansted Express services are as follows:

Tottenham Hale-Stansted Airport: 23:15
Stansted Airport- Tottenham Hale: 23:59

There is no service on any other routes.

Wednesday 27 December-Monday 1 January:

Great Eastern Main Line:

Major engineering work will take place between Shenfield and Witham from Wednesday 27 December until Monday 1 January with all main line services affected.

Services from Norwich, Ipswich, Clacton, Colchester, and Braintree will terminate at Witham, connecting with the following rail replacement services:

Fast direct bus service: Witham – Billericay (approximately 50 minutes)

Stopping bus service: Witham – Billericay via Hatfield Peverel and Chelmsford (approximately 65 minutes)

Connecting train services will operate between Billericay and London Liverpool Street, calling at Shenfield and Stratford.

For passengers travelling to or from Ingatestone station, a shuttle bus services will operate between Chelmsford and Ingatestone and between Ingatestone and Shenfield.

Both Witham and Billericay station car parks will be partially closed between Wednesday 27 December and Monday 1 January.

Cambridgeshire area engineering work:

Greater Anglia services will be affected between Audley End and Cambridge North.

Services between London Liverpool Street and Cambridge will terminate at Audley End, with replacement bus services running between Audley Edge and Cambridge North via Cambridge.

Norwich to Cambridge services will operate between Norwich and Cambridge North only, with replacement buses between Cambridge and Cambridge North.

Between Ipswich and Cambridge route, a rail replacement bus service will run between Cambridge and Bury St Edmunds. A train service will operate between Bury St Edmunds and Ipswich.  Kennett station is unable to be serviced by replacement buses. The service between Ipswich and Peterborough will call additionally at Kennett station instead.

Cambridge station car park will be closed on Wednesday and Thursday 27 and 28 December.

Audley End station car park will be partially closed between Wednesday 27 December and Monday 1 January.

Passengers should also be aware that other operators will also be affected.

Tuesday 2 and Wednesday 3 January:

Normal services will run.

Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia’s managing director, said:  “While most of our services will be running between Christmas and New Year, so that people can continue to travel across East Anglia and beyond, there is major engineering work taking place on both main lines to and from London Liverpool Street from 25 December to 1 January inclusive.

“Network Rail’s programme of engineering work this Christmas is vital for improving and upgrading the infrastructure to enable Greater Anglia to continue operating a very punctual and reliable service in 2024. They are also progressing the key projects to provide new stations at Beaulieu Park, north of Chelmsford (on the GEML), and Cambridge South (on the WAML).

“We apologise for the inconvenience caused by the service alterations, and we urge passengers to check before they travel as some journeys may take longer than normal.”

Katie Frost, Network Rail’s route director for Anglia, added:  “Our programme of engineering work this Christmas is critical for upgrading and maintaining the railway ahead of the new year when fewer passengers want to use our services. Our teams of engineers, maintenance crews, contractors and surveyors will be out on track over the entire Christmas period delivering this important work.

“We have a significant Christmas programme this year, particularly around Cambridge and Chelmsford to continue to build the two new stations on our route planned to open in 2025. I hope passengers can understand the need for the upgrades and I’d like to reassure them that we’ll be getting a huge amount done while trains aren’t running. I also want to say thank you to our lineside neighbours for bearing with us while we’re out working hard in their communities.”