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Tuesday 17 Apr 2018

Passengers in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Southend advised to check before they travel this May

Region & Route:

Eastern: Anglia

| Eastern

Passengers in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Southend are asked to check before they travel ahead of the two May bank holiday weekends.

Over the first bank holiday, work will be concentrated on the Southend Victoria branch line where Team Orange will replace 4km of overhead wires between Billericay and Wickford.

This is a continuation of the work to replace the old overhead wiring system with a new one which adapts automatically to heat during the summer, meaning fewer delays and cancellations. This new wiring system will also allow Greater Anglia to run their fleet of new trains with Wi-Fi, plug sockets and extra seats, from 2019 and to run more services in the future.

Over the second bank holiday, the work is concentrated on the Great Eastern Mainline at Ilford where engineers will replace a further 3km of overhead wire, following the work at Easter. This will increase reliability as part of plans to upgrade the overhead wiring system, meaning fewer delays for passengers all the way up to Norwich.

Meliha Duymaz, Network Rail’s route managing director for Anglia, said: “We are continuing our work to transform rail services for passengers in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex as part of our Railway Upgrade Plan. While I understand that closing the line is inconvenient, it’s vital that we get these chunks of time in order to carry out these important upgrades. I’d like to thank passengers for their patience while we carry out this work.”

Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia Managing Director, said: “We know people would rather stay on the train the whole way, but we have arranged over 400 buses during the two bank holiday weekends to make sure that customers can still complete their journeys. We’ll also have extra staff on hand help make the journey as easy as possible for passengers.”

Rail replacement services will run throughout both bank holidays and passengers are advised to check before they travel. Main line services will be unaffected on Saturday and Monday during the early May bank holiday.