Rail bosses have been urged to prioritise improving reliability, train carriage quality and invest in track improvements to speed up services across East Anglia.

Officials from across Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex today seized the opportunity to quiz Network Rail and train operators about the problems encountered on the region's network.

But all parties at the rail summit, held in Westminster, agreed it was a priority to create a vision for the next 20 years of how services in East Anglia should operate.

It is hoped drawing up this plan will identify ways of speeding up services along the Great Eastern Main Line.

In particular, this could lead to quicker services between Norwich and London, Norwich and Cambridge and King's Lynn to London.

Summit organiser Chloe Smith, Norwich North MP, said: 'The whole summit was extremely positive. There's plenty of work to do from here on all the plans discussed today - Norwich to Cambridge, King's Lynn to London and of course Norwich to London.

'We are confident we can move that work on, starting extremely soon, and we are confident we have got the unity needed from this meeting to make it happen in the long-term.

'This seems to be the first time everyone has been in a room together to tackle these issues.'

A �10m investment into the Ely junction was identified as the best way to improve services for Norwich and King's Lynn to Cambridge and King's Lynn to London.

But further work will be needed across East Anglia to understand how train speeds can be increased.

Councillor Graham Plant, Norfolk County Council cabinet member for planning and transportation, said a more reliable Norwich to London service taking 100 minutes would be preferable to an unreliable 90-minute one.