Extra staff, new ticket gates and more standby buses will be provided as part of a £10million investment in our region’s train service.

Greater Anglia has announced a range of upgrades designed to improve standards across its network.

Improvements include new seat covers on services between London, Colchester, Clacton and Ipswich.

Colchester will be one of seven stations on the line to have new automatic ticket gates installed, which will allow mobile and print-at-home ticketing to be introduced.

An additional 40 cleaning staff will be recruited, including eight on-train cleaners who will work on services to Clacton and Southend.

More catering staff will be employed to trial a first-class catering service on peak trains between London and Norwich.

And wireless public address systems will allow staff to make announcements on the platform at stations including Colchester and Witham.

Greater Anglia will also invest in standby buses at Witham, Ipswich and Norwich in the event of service disruption.

The latest improvements are in addition to a £20million programme of upgrades announced earlier this year, which includes refurbishing intercity trains.

The upgrades will take place before the end of the current franchise in October 2016.

Managing Director Jamie Burles said: "This extensive package of service improvements represents a major investment in key areas of service delivery.

“In a short-term franchise we will now be investing over £30 million in customer-focused enhancements aimed at continuously improving the quality of the train service our passengers experience."