National Express East Anglia’s new improved timetable for customers using the Norwich - Ipswich - Colchester - Chelmsford to London mainline route and connecting branch line services will commence on Sunday 12 December, with full details for customers now available at stations and on the website at www.nationalexpresseastanglia.com

The timetable will include additional seats and increased capacity on many services as part of NXEA’s Service Improvement Plan agreed in conjunction with the Department for Transport. The key improvements for Norfolk include:

• Longer peak Intercity trains between Norwich, Diss and London with more 9 coach trains
• Fast 07.40 Intercity service from Norwich to London calling at Diss and Ipswich only (journey time, 1 hour 44 minutes)
• Some faster off-peak services between Norwich, Diss and London (journey time, 1 hour 47 minutes)
• First Intercity service from Norwich (05.00 departure) and Diss arrives in London before 7am
• 2 extra evening peak services from London will call at Diss
• New weekday 19.30 Norwich to London service (provides half-hourly evening departures from Norwich until 22.00)
• New weekday 21.00 London to Norwich service (half-hourly between 06.00 and 21.30)
• More Norwich Intercity services calling at Stratford
• Most Norwich to Cambridge services will be modern three-carriage trains (currently two carriages) and additional Sunday services will operate at 22.03 from Norwich and 08.48 from Cambridge
• 2 extra morning and evening peak services between Great Yarmouth and Norwich
• Improved connection from Great Yarmouth into the 07.40 fast Intercity service at Norwich and later 21.00 departure from London with a Great Yarmouth connection at Norwich

Andrew Chivers, Managing Director of National Express East Anglia said:

“The December timetable provides a real step-change for our customers with longer trains and over 4,000 extra seats at peak times into London Liverpool Street. The investment of £185m in our Service Improvement Plan to provide capacity enhancement on the East Anglia network agreed with the Department for Transport, is providing 188 new and additional vehicles with the first 68 carriages on our mainline route from this December and 120 new carriages on our Stansted Express and West Anglia route in 2011.

“Overall by the end of 2011, National Express East Anglia will be providing 11,000 more seats for our customers using services into London Liverpool Street, an increase of 18% on the current seating capacity levels.”