RAIL travellers from Braintree and Diss will be among the beneficiaries of changes in the new National Express East Anglia winter timetable, which comes into force on Sunday, December 14.

RAIL travellers from Braintree and Diss will be among the beneficiaries of changes in the new National Express East Anglia winter timetable, which comes into force on Sunday, December 14.

The timetable is mostly unaltered from the existing schedules but includes a number changes which National Express says reflect customer demand and feedback.

The main alterations include on mainline routes involve the current 16.36 Mondays to Fridays Liverpool Street to Braintree service which is retimed to 16.34 and will call additionally at Stratford, providing an additional train for Braintree line customers working in Docklands, and the 17.00 Mondays to Fridays Liverpool Street to Norwich service which will call additionally at Diss.

The main changes on rural routes involve the Norwich-Cambridge service, although there are also some minor changes to services between Ipswich, Peterborough and Liverpool Street.

A number of additional trains will operate on the West Anglia line, including a new 07.22 Mondays to Fridays Cambridge to Ely service, while on Stansted Express services the changes include the 18.40 Mondays to Fridays Liverpool Street to Stansted Airport service which will continue to call additionally at Stansted Mountfitchet.

New timetable booklets are now available at stations and passengers are advised to check the details of all journeys for travel on or after Sunday. The winter timetable will operate until Saturday, May 16, 2009.

n Business and council leaders in Norfolk have issued a five-point set of demands following a two-hour summit meeting with National Express East Anglia to voice concerns about its services.

The business forum Shaping Norfolk's Future is calling for faster journey times to London, extra carriages so that all passengers can sit down and the introduction of wi-fi and plug sockets.

It is also demanding improved cleanliness and a commitment to catering, with National Express having recently announced plans to withdraw its restaurant car service on the London mainline.