Essex: Signal failure hits rail commuters.

Engineers from Network Rail are working to correct the fault at Colchester but it could be 6pm before services are back to normal.

The fault was discovered last night and it meant delays of up to an hour for people travelling from Braintree to Witham.

An Anglia Railways spokesman said a temporary signalling system is in place between Colchester and Marks Tey which has caused a backlog of services.

He said trains going into London have been delayed by up to an hour and services from Colchester to Ipswich have been delayed by 35 to 40 minutes.

Carl Lombardelli, spokesman for First Great Eastern, said the signalling problem was causing severe delays of up to an hour for passengers trying to travel between Braintree and Witham.

And at Chelmsford passengers were not able to embark on the first available trains, as they were so full, causing crowds of commuters having to wait on the platform.

He said: "We can only run a limited service between Colchester and Marks Tey, so there are fewer trains able to go into London and back.

"Several trains are stuck at Clacton so we have had to divert resources from the Braintree to Witham line and use those trains on the main line.

"We have had to cancel several trains and we are replacing services with buses where possible, but if one train is cancelled at Braintree, there will be quite a wait until the next one."

Mr Lombardelli said he hopes normal service will be resumed in time for the evening rush hour, although this morning Network Rail had been unable to indicate how long it might take to fix the problem.

But Clive Totman, a photographer from East Bergholt, gave up on his commute to London after it took 90 minutes to travel the eight miles from Manningtree to Colchester.

Stepping off the train at North Station at 11.10 am he said: "There has been a total lack of contingency planning with staff running everywhere like headless chickens."

Published Monday, April 28, 2003

Brought to you by the Evening Gazette