Greater Anglia has opened a new sidings at Norwich station marking the completion of the rail operator's biggest infrastructure project to date.

The sidings, which are located next to the mainline just outside the station, consist of four new tracks with enough space to hold up to four 12-carriage trains.

The new sidings are part of Greater Anglia's £1.4bn project to replace all of its old trains with 169 state of the art trains and will provide the extra space needed to keep the new larger fleet.

The new storage space took just over nine months to complete and officially went into use on Tuesday, March 3.

The project saw a major overhaul of the old sidings, including re-levelling of the site and installation of four new tracks.

Three new sets of points were also installed and an existing set of points on the mainline at the entrance to the sidings underwent heavy maintenance, allowing them to be brought back into use for the first time in 15 years.

The project also included signalling works, a new shunter's cabin and drivers' walkways with bollard lighting and CCTV.

A new compound area and an accommodation block with an office for the site security as well as welfare facilities for drivers and shunters.

Ian McConnell, Greater Anglia franchise and programmes director, said: "It was great to see the first train enter Norwich Victoria sidings. These sidings will help us to improve the reliability of our service and make maintenance and cleaning of our trains much easier."