A passengers' watchdog has branded the launch of a new train timetable in Essex "as chaotic as expected".

One Railway introduced a revised schedule yesterday, in a bid to improve its service.

But not all passengers knew of the altered arrangements - leading to morning rush-hour confusion.

David Bigg, of Witham and Braintree Rail-Users' Association, said: "It has been chaotic, and we are not really surprised the expected has happened.

"Commuters turned up, not realising the timetable had been altered, and suddenly found their normal trains weren't there."

He added: "For a major re-think of the schedules like this, commonsense dictates that pocket timetables should have been issued to passengers."

A spokesman for One claimed that, overall, the launch had gone "reasonably well".

He said: "We are going to be out and about, seeing how it settles in. Clearly, it is a big change, and will need to be closely monitored, but at the moment things are going OK."

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Published Tuesday, December 14, 2004

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