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Thursday 15 May 2025

East Anglia railways open to enjoy the spring bank holiday

Region & Route:

Eastern: Anglia

This spring bank holiday, the majority of the railway network across East Anglia will be open for passengers to travel and enjoy exciting destinations in Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridge, as well as access to the capital.

Engineering work is being kept to a minimum allowing passenger services to run uninterrupted along the Great Eastern and West Anglia mainlines between London and Cambridge, and between London and Chelmsford, Colchester and Norwich.

Many of the branch lines will also be open for passengers to travel across the region enjoying some of the more rural destinations and seaside towns.

A limited amount of engineering work is taking place in a small number of locations that may affect some early morning or late-night services across the bank holiday weekend. Passengers needing to travel on early morning or late-night services are encouraged to check before travelling at nationalrail.co.uk and to leave extra time if their journey is affected.

In the London area, engineering work will take place on the Mildmay line for three days between Stratford and Camden Road from Saturday 24 to Monday 26 May (inclusive). This is part of a programme of weekend engineering work to replace 1170 metres of worn-out track and replacing 50 year-old concrete sleepers between Stratford and Homerton.

There will also be no Greater Anglia services operating between Stratford and Tottenham Hale. Services to Stratford from Bishops Stortford and Hertford East will be diverted to London Liverpool Street. No services will run between Meridian Water and Stratford.

In Cambridgeshire, engineering work will be taking place between March station and Peterborough from late evening on Saturday 24 to Monday 26 May (inclusive). This will affect passengers travelling on Greater Anglia, CrossCountry and East Midlands Railway services between Peterborough and Ely

Rail replacement bus services will operate between Peterborough, March and Ely to allow passengers to complete their journey using connecting services between Ely and Stansted via Cambridge, and between Ely and Norwich via Thetford. Greater Anglia trains will continue to operate between March and Ipswich via Ely.

Katie Frost, Anglia route director for Network Rail said: “Our engineering work programme is usually focused on major bank holidays when fewer people travel to minimise disruption to passenger services, but sometimes we get a bank holiday when we can keep engineering work to a minimum. 

“This not only benefits our passengers, but also the communities we serve by providing a train service that encourages travel and tourism on these long and hopefully sunny weekends.

“We have some limited engineering work happening but I hope people will take advantage of our network being mostly open this bank holiday.”