Greater Anglia has announced heavy reductions to its services during forthcoming industrial action by train drivers.
Members of the ASLEF trade union will be refusing to work overtime from Friday 1 December to Saturday 9 December inclusive, and while the operator will apply its usual timetable, it will cancel some trains.
ASLEF has also called members out on strike in different parts of the country on different days during the same week.
Greater Anglia relies on drivers working overtime to run Sunday services, so the overtime ban will mean that there will be no services at all on some of its routes and a reduced service on other routes due to cancellations and/or planned engineering work. There will be no service on the following routes:
- Wickford to Southminster
- Manningtree to Harwich
- Ipswich to Felixstowe
- Marks Tey to Sudbury
There will also be limited rail transport options in the Cambridge area, as Great Northern drivers will be striking, Greater Anglia and CrossCounty drivers will be refusing to work overtime, and some planned engineering work will be carried out, linked to the construction of Cambridge South station).
Greater Anglia drivers will strike on Tuesday 5 December, and the operator will run very few trains on only four core routes, with only one train per hour and for a limited period. Those routes are:
- Norwich to London
- Colchester to London
- Southend Victoria to London
- Stansted Airport to London (Stansted Express)
Services will start much later and finish earlier than normal, apart from on the Stansted Express. The operator expects the trains to be very busy and is asking passengers to consider travelling on different days. It will run a small number of trains between Cambridge and London Liverpool Street, but only around every two hours and for a very limited period.
No services at all will run on any other Greater Anglia routes on Tuesday 5 December.
Great Northern drivers will not be striking on that date, so passengers will be able to use their services between London Kings Cross and Cambridge.
Greater Anglia is advising passengers:
- to check here for further information
- to check the journey planner before travelling as there may be last-minute changes to the service.
- that the journey planners will be updated with exact train times three days before each strike date.
- that the overtime ban is affecting most UK train operators between 1 and 9 December inclusive. In addition, most operators face full strike action on one of those days.
Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia's managing director, said: “Unfortunately on the 5 December, no services will run at all on most Greater Anglia routes, with just an hourly service during normal operating hours on the Stansted Airport to London route and an hourly service for limited hours on the Norwich to London, Colchester to London and Southend Victoria to London routes, plus a few services between Cambridge and London Liverpool Street.
“On the days affected by action short of a strike, the vast majority of services will be running as normal, but there will be some alterations and cancellations across our network, especially on Sunday 3 December, when far more services will be affected and far more disruption will take place, along with planned engineering work on some routes.
“We are sorry for any inconvenience caused by these service alterations and advise customers to plan ahead and check before they travel.”
ASLEF General Secretary Mick Whelan said, “We are determined to win this dispute and get a significant pay rise for train drivers who have not had an increase since 2019 while the cost of living, in that time, has soared.
“Mr Harper, who has gone missing in action during this dispute, says we should put the offer to our members. What the minister apparently fails to understand is that, since the RDG's risible offer in April, we have received overwhelming mandates, on enormous turnouts, for more industrial action!
“Our members have spoken and we know what they think. Every time they vote – and they have voted overwhelmingly – for strike action in pursuit of a proper pay rise it is a clear rejection of the offer that was made in April.”
