PASSENGERS travelling on intercity trains will not be able to reserve seats for six months.

Greater Anglia is suspending the seat reservations from Saturday, July 13.

It will be for intercity trains which travel between Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester and London.

The move is ahead of the firm introducing new trains.

It will see both new and old trains, which have different reservation systems, running at the same time.

Greater Anglia said it was taking the step to prevent confusion or misunderstandings for customers during this transitionary period.

The seating reservation system will be suspended until all old trains are removed from service, which is expected to take around six months.

Greater Anglia’s Business Readiness Director, Andrew Goodrum, said, “The new trains coming into service is really exciting, but we wanted to avoid any mix ups with reservations while the two fleets are swapped over.

“For example, if a passenger reserved their seat in advance, the reservation would be made for a seat in one of the current older trains.

"By the time they travel, this could have been swapped to one of the new trains, where all the seats will be different, meaning that they would not be able to find their reservation.

“Once the old trains are removed from service our seat reservations system will be reinstated, but during the transition phase people will be able to get used to the new trains and familiarise themselves with the layout.”

Seat reservations can still be booked from now up until Friday July 12.