Rail passengers are being advised to only travel if their journey is essential, as Storm Eunice is forecast to sweep through East Anglia with gale-force winds.
Greater Anglia is reducing its train service on Friday 18th February, as Network Rail is imposing speed restrictions across the network because of the impacts of the storm, which will also lead to longer journey times.
Further disruption may be caused by trees or other objects being blown onto tracks and overhead lines or other damage caused by the storm – which could lead to short notice cancellations or delays.
Some services will not be running as train frequency is due to be reduced on many routes. The planned service frequency will be as follows:
Half hourly service
- Southend Victoria to London Liverpool Street
- Stansted Airport to London
Hourly service
- Norwich to London Liverpool Street Intercity service
- Cambridge, Bishop’s Stortford to London Liverpool Street
- Ipswich, Colchester, Chelmsford to London Liverpool Street
- Meridian Water to Stratford
- Southminster – Wickford
- Harwich – Manningtree
- Walton-on-the-Naze – Thorpe-le-Soken
- Clacton-on-Sea – Colchester
- Hertford East – Broxbourne
- Marks Tey to Sudbury
- Norwich to Cambridge,
- Norwich to Great Yarmouth
- Norwich to Lowestoft
Two hourly (once every two hours)
- Norwich to Sheringham
- Ipswich to Cambridge
- Ipswich to Lowestoft
- Ipswich to Felixstowe
- Ipswich to Peterborough
Greater Anglia will be contacting any customers who have booked passenger assistance on affected services. They can also call Greater Anglia to check or rearrange their journey by calling 0800 028 2878 (free from a landline), text type 18001 0800 028 2878 or call from a mobile phone on 0345 6007245.
Customers who have booked tickets for travel on Friday 18th February can use them on another day. Customers can choose to rearrange their travel plans free of charge, which can be done where they bought their tickets.
In the event of any additional service disruption Greater Anglia will do its best to provide a rail replacement bus service but it is likely to be limited and subject to disruption on the roads due to storm damage.
Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia managing director said: “We are very sorry to inconvenience customers, but we want to make sure that we run a safe and reliable service in the extreme conditions that have been forecast.
“High winds can cause damage to overhead lines and tracks caused by debris or fallen trees, which it may not be safe to fix immediately until wind levels have dropped.
“There is also a danger of flooding on some of our lines, which could lead to landslips or tracks becoming unstable.
“Passengers are advised to check before they travel, expect longer journey times and be aware that there may be short notice cancellations due to trees blocking the line or objects blown onto overhead wires preventing trains from running.”
Ellie Burrows, Network Rail’s route director for Anglia, said: “We will be doing everything we can to keep as many services as possible running safely and reliably, but with such strong winds expected we know that disruption to passengers’ journeys is inevitable.
“We ask passengers to please consider whether your journey is necessary and if you need to travel please be aware that there may be changes and cancellations at short notice.”
Press release from Greater Anglia
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