Eastern Counties rail damage causes travel chaos

Railway company One is urging people not to travel between London and the eastern counties on Saturday morning following overhead line damage.

Passengers have experienced delays since Wednesday night when power cables came down at Hatfield Peverill in Essex.

Severe delays were caused on Friday evening as passengers were advised to travel via Stansted to Colchester. The incident between Ingatestone and Chelmsford affected services from London Liverpool Street to Norwich, Ipswich, Clacton and Braintree.

One hopes to have services back to normal by Saturday lunchtime. About 1,000 people were told to travel to Stansted instead of their final destination on Friday evening and police were called to keep order as commuters rushed towards buses laid on to take them on to their destinations. One eyewitness said she saw ambulances arrive to tend to people who were feeling ill.

A company statement said: "Engineering work will take place during Friday evening and Saturday morning to repair the overhead wires. Services are not expected to return to normal until at least midday on Saturday, and customers are advised to delay their journeys until after midday wherever possible or to use alternative travel methods."

Last week there major delays after a small landslide near Manningtree in Essex.

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