Greater Anglia trains too long for village platforms

The software system to open the doors should be in place soon, Greater Anglia says

The number of services stopping at two village stations has been temporarily cut because new trains are too long for the platforms.

Some trains will not be calling at Kennett in Cambridgeshire, and Elmswell, Suffolk, Greater Anglia said.

The rail operator said it was because the software system that only opens doors next to the platform was not up and running yet.

Replacement bus services have been arranged, it added.

Services affected are the Cambridge-bound trains at Kennett and at Elmswell in the Ipswich direction, from Monday to Friday.

One stop has also been cut at Dullingham, Cambridgeshire, while "station improvements" take place.

A Greater Anglia spokeswoman said: "When calling at Elmswell and Kennett, our new trains need to use automatic selective door opening software in one direction only.

"This ensures that only doors opening on to a platform will open where the platform is shorter than our new longer trains."

She said the software was expected to be "ready in the coming weeks".

The services have been affected at Elmswell in one direction

Greater Anglia spent £1.4bn on its new fleet, which includes 38 bi-mode trains, able to run on diesel or electric power, for services in Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex.

They started to be introduced in September.

"Given the many advantages of the new trains over our existing older trains, we considered it was best not to hold up the roll-out for one system and one supplier," the company added.