Greater Anglia advise Suffolk rail passengers to avoid travelling by train as further rail strikes cause disruption

Greater Anglia is advising rail passengers in Suffolk to avoid travelling by train in the coming weeks as national rail strikes continue to cause disruption.

The strikes will take place on Saturday October 1 and Wednesday October 5, and will impact those travelling to the London Marathon on Sunday October 2 with no services before 7/7.30am on this day.

This comes after the rail unions ASLEF and RMT postponed strikes due to the death of Her Majesty The Queen and rescheduled them.

As a result, Greater Anglia services will be severely disrupted, with the company only able to run a fraction of its services.

All of East Anglia’s top football teams – Ipswich Town, Norwich, Cambridge United, Peterborough United and Colchester United - have fixtures on Saturday 1 October, as do Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham and Arsenal, and fans are strongly advised to make alternative travel arrangements to these games.

There will be no service at all between Cambridge and London Liverpool Street or on regional or branch lines, and a heavily reduced service will run between London Liverpool Street and Norwich, Colchester, Southend Victoria and on the Stansted Express service between Stansted Airport and London Liverpool Street.

On Saturday 1 October, services will only operate from 7.30am and with all last trains setting off before the end of the working day and final whistle in most cases in order to be at their final destination by 6.30pm.

Due to engineering work there is a rail replacement bus service between Colchester and Ingatestone connecting with the heavily reduced train service on Saturday 1.

There will be no rail replacement buses to replace trains not running due to the strike.

Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia managing director said: “We are very sorry that once again our customers will be disrupted by strikes, which this time will affect football fans and some people from our region competing in the London Marathon, as well as school or college students, commuters and business travellers.

“We’re only able to run a fraction of our usual services, so our advice again is to avoid using our trains on strike days.

“The rail industry is working hard to resolve these disputes and talks will continue with ASLEF and RMT in an effort to avert the strike.”

Anyone who has pre-booked tickets can change them, use them to travel on either the day before or up to two days later, or apply for a refund by going back to their original retailer.

Further information is available from greateranglia.co.uk/strikes which will be updated when details are finalised.