Additional Peak Regional Services on Greater Anglia

[evergreenadam]

Moderator note: Split from

Whittlesea

Can anyone shed any light on Whittlesea station and the EMR morning service please? I keep a daily check on the EMR app for any changes, cancellations etc. Quite often the 8:16am EMR train is cancelled, like today, due to a fault on the train. However, the cancellation only applies to...

www.railforums.co.uk

Why on earth is EMR being given responsibility for providing this anomalous but clearly important morning peak service? Especially when they don’t appear to have compatible rolling stock to do so. It’s a recipe for chaos. EMR should be concentrating on providing the fast inter regional service, not the stopper.

Could Greater Anglia not just provide one extra service on the Ely to Peterborough route into Peterborough in the morning peak and then that EMR service could non-stop Whittlesey like all other EMR services?

I get that in an ideal world the Ipswich to Peterborough service would be hourly rather than two hourly which would solve the problem.

 

[wagnaga]

Why on earth is EMR being given responsibility for providing this anomalous but clearly important morning peak service? Especially when they don’t appear to have compatible rolling stock to do so. It’s a recipe for chaos. EMR should be concentrating on providing the fast inter regional service, not the stopper.

Could Greater Anglia not just provide one extra service on the Ely to Peterborough route into Peterborough in the morning peak and then that EMR service could non-stop Whittlesey like all other EMR services?

I get that in an ideal world the Ipswich to Peterborough service would be hourly rather than two hourly which would solve the problem.

Is the issue that Ely doesn't have the capacity for an additional service in the peak at present?

 

[30907]

Why on earth is EMR being given responsibility for providing this anomalous but clearly important morning peak service? Especially when they don’t appear to have compatible rolling stock to do so. It’s a recipe for chaos. EMR should be concentrating on providing the fast inter regional service, not the stopper.

Could Greater Anglia not just provide one extra service on the Ely to Peterborough route into Peterborough in the morning peak and then that EMR service could non-stop Whittlesey like all other EMR services?

Ely apart, what would you do with the unit for the rest of the day?

 

[Starmill]

Why on earth is EMR being given responsibility for providing this anomalous but clearly important morning peak service? Especially when they don’t appear to have compatible rolling stock to do so. It’s a recipe for chaos. EMR should be concentrating on providing the fast inter regional service, not the stopper.

They've been stopping for at least ten years. Probably longer. Same reason why CrossCountry stop at Manea. Otherwise there'd be no service at a time when one is clearly needed.

 

[evergreenadam]

Ely apart, what would you do with the unit for the rest of the day?

Greater Anglia may have sufficient rolling stock to resource such an extra morning peak service, they have been able to introduce extra morning peak services into Cambridge recently.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 21 Aug 2026 ==

They've been stopping for at least ten years. Probably longer. Same reason why CrossCountry stop at Manea. Otherwise there'd be no service at a time when one is clearly needed.

My suggestion was not to remove the EMR call at Whittlesea without replacement, it was for Greater Anglia to run an extra morning peak stopping service into Peterborough (in time for 9am arrival) so that EMR can run their inter-regional service in the way it was clearly intended.

 

[dk1]

Greater Anglia may have sufficient rolling stock to resource such an extra morning peak service, they have been able to introduce extra morning peak services into Cambridge recently.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 21 Aug 2026 ==

The problem with Whittlesea is that it involves passing over Ely North Jcn & the additional pressure on level crossings across the Fens to Peterborough. Thsee where the reasons Network Rail refused the hourly frequency from Ipswich.

 

[saismee]

Split from:

Whittlesea

Can anyone shed any light on Whittlesea station and the EMR morning service please? I keep a daily check on the EMR app for any changes, cancellations etc. Quite often the 8:16am EMR train is cancelled, like today, due to a fault on the train. However, the cancellation only applies to...

www.railforums.co.uk

Ely apart, what would you do with the unit for the rest of the day?

Could it be possible to run a Norwich to Peterborough service? You would need the path through Trowse Jn and Ely North Jn.

And is it possible for there to be an extra service from Colchester to Peterborough? An 0640 departure would get to Whittlesea around 0830. The unit could return as cars or in service.

 

[evergreenadam]

I have been informed that Ely North Junction is the problem, no room for any more services. Network Rail apparently refused permission to increase the Ipswich to Peterborough service to hourly.

Clearly there is a path through once every two hours, not sure what takes the path in the other hour - maybe a freight service?

 

[Starmill]

My suggestion was not to remove the EMR call at Whittlesea without replacement, it was for Greater Anglia to run an extra morning peak stopping service into Peterborough (in time for 9am arrival) so that EMR can run their inter-regional service in the way it was clearly intended.

Primarily because the current arrangement is by far more efficient? The Whittlesea passengers fit on the EMR train. There is no need to go hiring additional crew because of the belief that this service is "not intended" to serve Whittlesea. Some of them stop at Hunts Cross, Chinley / Dore & Totley, Ilkeston / Dronfield, Bingham, Attleborough and too, so presumably you'd need an additional service in each case? Quite a lot of additional services there.

 

[evergreenadam]

Primarily because the current arrangement is by far more efficient? The Whittlesea passengers fit on the EMR train. There is no need to go hiring additional crew because of the belief that this service is "not intended" to serve Whittlesea. Some of them stop at Hunts Cross, Chinley / Dore & Totley, Ilkeston / Dronfield, Bingham, Attleborough and too, so presumably you'd need an additional service in each case? Quite a lot of additional services there.

The current timetable would be efficient if the EMR service was actually capable of stopping at Whittlesea, but as the original poster has explained that does not happen and so I have suggested an alternative which would have wider benefits.

Nobody is suggesting anything about other stations.

 

[Starmill]

The current timetable would be efficient if the EMR service was actually capable of stopping at Whittlesea

Except it does.

I have suggested an alternative which would have wider benefits.

It wouldn't though. This train would just run past Whittlesea and then wait longer elsewhere. At enormous extra cost.

 

[William3000]

Greater Anglia may have sufficient rolling stock to resource such an extra morning peak service, they have been able to introduce extra morning peak services into Cambridge recently.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 21 Aug 2026 ==


My suggestion was not to remove the EMR call at Whittlesea without replacement, it was for Greater Anglia to run an extra morning peak stopping service into Peterborough (in time for 9am arrival) so that EMR can run their inter-regional service in the way it was clearly intended.

EMR’s stop at Whittlesea in the peak isn’t an anomaly in the sense that the long distance services stop at other smaller stations in peaks - Dore & Totley, Hope Valley stations, Langley Mill, Ilkeston, Attleborough, Wymondham all get additional stops in peak times to supplement local or regional stops at these places

 

[saismee]

Except it does.

But not always, making it an unreliable service.

 

[Starmill]

But not always, making it an unreliable service.

Correct, although nearly all services in this country are quite unreliable. The answer is very, very rarely to run an additional train.