Greater Anglia is warning that a 24-hour strike and major engineering work will impact the weekend.
The rail operator said there will be an ASLEF union strike on Saturday 23 July, meaning it will not be able to run about 90 per cent of its services.
The next day, Sunday 24 July, major engineering works are scheduled on the Cambridge to London Liverpool Street and Norwich to London Liverpool Street main lines. A rail replacement bus service will operate for sections of both routes.
Greater Anglia says people should avoid using its service on Saturday during the strike and expect rail replacement bus services to be very busy with long queues on Sunday — as the company anticipates more people will be travelling than usual.
Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia managing director said: “We know that the weekend of 23/24 July is really busy – the start of the summer holidays, the Latitude Festival and other events in London.
“We are genuinely very sorry for all the inconvenience the strike will cause our customers, followed by major engineering works the following day when we anticipate more people might be travelling because they’re unable to make their journeys on Saturday.
“Negotiations to try to resolve the pay issue causing the ASLEF drivers’ strike are continuing at an industry level and we hope we can resolve this situation soon.”
Ellie Burrows, Network Rail’s route director for Anglia, said: “This work is vital to upgrade the railway to support new, longer trains for West Anglia passengers and to support the next stage of the Crossrail programme which will provide better connections across London.”
As a result of the drivers’ strike, there will be:
- No services between Cambridge, Bishops Stortford and London Liverpool Street
- No regional or branch line services
- A severely reduced service between Norwich and London Liverpool Street, Colchester and London and Southend Victoria and London
- A less frequent service between Stansted Airport and London Liverpool Street
The timings of remaining services are yet to be finalised.
Engineering works on Sunday 24 July will affect passengers travelling between London Liverpool Street and Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire.
