Greater Anglia has said it is expecting to see more passengers aboard its trains in the coming weeks with students travelling home for Christmas and households commuting to visit their bubbles.

But the train company assured customers they were making it as "easy as possible" to stay safe on its trains.

A spokeswoman said: "We are expecting to see an increase in the number of students travelling home for Christmas. We are working with the relevant universities across our patch and have issued guidance which has been sent to universities."

The government has confirmed students can travel at the end of their academic turn and has urged higher education providers to support their students as much as possible.

The spokeswoman added: "The government is advising people forming Christmas bubbles to travel between December 23 and 27 , so there may be an increase in travel during those dates.

"However our passenger numbers are still much lower than usual due to the government advice to work from home.

"We’ve tried to make it as easy as possible to socially distance on stations and trains. We’re running a near normal timetable and many routes (all routes in Norfolk) have new longer trains where there is more space for people to spread out.

"We’re asking customers to help us by spreading out along the platform and train, taking a window seat if possible and wearing a face covering over their face and nose the entire journey, including at the station.

"We’ve stepped up cleaning and sanitising of trains and stations. We’ll continue to monitor passenger numbers."