More Greater Anglia train services will be running through Suffolk as more people are expected to return to work and school next month.

An extra 12 services every weekday and eight at weekends will be added to the Norwich to London Liverpool Street service with two 90-minute express services set to be reintroduced.

The new additional services will start from the week beginning Monday, September 13.

The full timetable is being restored on the Great Eastern mainline service between London Liverpool Street and Southend Victoria, Braintree, Colchester, Colchester Town, Clacton/Walton, Harwich and Ipswich.

Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia managing director said: “As restrictions have been lifted we’ve seen our trains get busier on many routes. We anticipate further increases as the Government is encouraging people to return to working from offices.

“We revised our timetable several times during the pandemic to reflect the impact of Covid restrictions on passenger numbers and throughout that time we ran a safe and reliable railway.

“We are continuing to clean and sanitise our trains, paying attention to high touch areas. Regular independent random Covid tests have been carried out on our trains and all have come back negative.

“For people who would still rather travel on quieter trains, we have an improved less busy trains tool on our website, where people can see at a glance which are the quietest stations at every station to and from London Liverpool Street.

“We also remain committed to running a punctual railway and currently on average 95 per cent of our trains are on time.”

The extra intercity services due to be added to the timetable are:

Weekdays: 06.28, 08.03, 12.32, 13.30 and 18.32 Norwich to London Liverpool Street.

10.00, 11.00, 15.00, 16.00 and 21.00 London Liverpool Street to Norwich.

06.50 Colchester to Norwich, 18.00 Ipswich to Norwich.

Saturdays: 06.30, 11.30, 16.30 Norwich to London and 09.00, 14.00, 19.00 London to Norwich.

As a result of these changes, there is now a near normal weekday and Saturday intercity service in place and a full service on Sundays.