With the lifting of Lockdown Plan B restrictions and the expected increase in people travelling to work, Greater Anglia will run more services on weekdays from Monday 7 February.

Since the Government lifted Plan B restrictions, including removing work from home guidance, there has been a steady increase in passenger numbers which is expected to continue in the coming weeks as workers return to office working.

Commuter numbers are expected to reflect the changes in working patterns, with people doing a mixture of working from home and going into the office, and mid-week days being the most popular for travel.

On all the main routes into London Liverpool Street from Ipswich, Colchester, Chelmsford, Southend Victoria, Cambridge, Bishop’s Stortford, and Hertford East, more trains will run.

Between Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester and London Liverpool Street, for most of the day, the intercity service will be half-hourly, but hourly for parts of the evening.

On the Norwich to Great Yarmouth line, normal regional weekday service will operate, and four additional peak services will be reinstated.

Between London and Stansted Airport, the Stansted Express service will continue with two trains an hour, but with three trains an hour at certain times.

Greater Anglia’s weekend timetable remains unchanged.

Passengers can check train times on the Greater Anglia website https://www.greateranglia.co.uk/travel-information/journey-check.

If a train is no longer running because of these timetable changes, passengers who have tickets for that train can catch the service either immediately before or after it was due to run or can apply for a refund free of charge.

Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia managing director, said: “We’re pleased to be welcoming customers back, whether they’re travelling to work or school and college, or for a fun leisure trip. We’re aiming to match the number of services we run to the number of passengers using them.

“We want to provide a safe, reliable and punctual service for our customers, but we also want to provide the best possible value for taxpayers as we are now funded entirely by the government and so ultimately taxpayers.

“Throughout the pandemic, we have altered our services depending on passenger numbers and government guidance.

“Although like everyone we hope the pandemic is nearing an end and that we are approaching a more normal period, we will continue to monitor passenger numbers and make any further adjustments to our services if necessary.

“It’s safe to travel on our trains, even when it’s busy, as we have good ventilation on board and we will continue with our enhanced cleaning and sanitisation.

“We’re asking passengers to continue to wear face coverings on our trains and stations, following government advice to wear them in busy places.

“We look forward to seeing more and more people travelling by train again over the months ahead and to providing the best possible service for them.”