Football fans going to the first matches of the season on Saturday 30 July are being strongly advised to make other travel arrangements as 90 per cent of Greater Anglia services will not be running due to a train drivers’ strike.
The 24-hour strike by rail union ASLEF will affect fans travelling to see East Anglian teams Colchester United, Norwich City, Cambridge United, Ipswich Town and Peterborough United play the first matches of the season on Saturday.
People going to see Lady Gaga at Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium on Saturday should also find alternative transport to get the stadium, due to the strike.
Greater Anglia is advising people to avoid travelling on its trains due to disruption caused by the strike.
On Saturday 30 July, Greater Anglia will be unable to run any services between Cambridge and London Liverpool Street and there will be no services on any branch or regional lines either.
The only services running – all heavily reduced – will be the Norwich-London intercity service, a stopping service between Colchester and London Liverpool Street, the Southend Victoria-London Liverpool Street service and the Stansted Express between Stansted Airport and London.
There will be no rail replacement buses to replace trains not running due to the strike.
Morning services on Sunday 31 July will also be affected by the strike, with most services starting later than usual at 7/7.30am. Services should be back to normal by early afternoon.
Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia managing director said: “We know that football fans like to travel to matches by train and that there are also many events around the region and in London which people have been looking forward to.
“Unfortunately, with our train drivers on strike we can only run a very limited service and so our advice is to avoid travelling on our trains.
“We are very sorry for the continued disruption this industrial action is causing our customers. The industry is working to resolve the disputes.”
Anyone with train tickets for Saturday can use them on Friday, Sunday or Monday, change them to a different day or apply to the retailer where they bought them for a free refund.
Train drivers are also due to strike at Arriva Rail London, which operates London Overground services, GWR, Hull Trains, LNER, Southeastern and West Midlands Trains on Saturday 30 July.
ASLEF has announced they will be holding another strike on Saturday 13 August, while further RMT strikes have been announced for Thursday 18 and Friday 20 August. The rail union TSSA will be taking industrial action short of a strike from Thursday 18 to Friday 20 August.
More information including timetables and refund details are available from greateranglia.co.uk/strikes
Service information for Saturday 30 July
There will be no services on the following routes on Saturday 30 July:
- Between London Liverpool Street and Cambridge North
- Between Norwich and Cambridge/Stansted Airport, Sheringham, Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth
- Between Ipswich and Cambridge, Peterborough, Felixstowe and Lowestoft
- Between Marks Tey and Sudbury
- All other branch lines: Hertford East to Broxbourne, Braintree to Witham, Southminster to Wickford, Harwich Town to Manningtree, Clacton/Walton-on-the-Naze to Colchester, Colchester Town to Colchester, Meridian Water to Stratford.
The following services will be running:
- The Intercity service between Norwich and London Liverpool Street will be one train an hour, with first and last trains from Norwich at 08.00 and 19.00, and from Liverpool Street at 10.30 and 21.30
- The stopping service between Colchester and London Liverpool Street will be one train an hour, with first and last trains from Colchester at 08.13 and 20.13, and from Liverpool Street at 10.00 and 22.00
- The service between Southend Victoria and London Liverpool Street will be one train an hour, with first and last trains from Southend Victoria at 08.13 and 22.00, and from Liverpool Street at 09.47 and 23.45
- The Stansted Express service between London and Stansted Airport will be one train an hour, with first and last trains from Stansted Airport at 05.30 and 00.30, and from Liverpool Street at 04.10 and 23.25
Photo credit: Greater Anglia
