Long-awaited improvements to the rail link between Braintree and Witham announced last week with a fanfare have now been shunted into the sidings.

Meanwhile rail commuters have called in independent auditors in a bid to save a proposed £500,000 bridge project at Witham station.

Rail watchdog David Bigg slammed as disastrous the financial freeze imposed by the Strategic Rail Authority which halted the improvements.

Mr Bigg, chairman of Witham and Braintree Rail Users Association, said: "It appears we will lose a footbridge at Witham, and our promised improvements to the branch line, certainly for the forseeable future. Everyone is disappointed."

Last week, First Great Eastern marketing manager Theo Steel said that the line was booming as never before and had become a huge success story.

Mr Steel said that the single track line would be given a loop line at Cressing station so that trains could run every half-hour instead of every hour, longer platforms so that the trains could pull 12 cars instead of eight, and a £1.2 million bridge over the line at Freeport, Braintree.

Operators First Great Eastern said that the work was needed to cope with the recent increase of 37 per cent to 1,200 passengers a day, which reflected the area's position as one of the fastest growing in the UK.

Now the project has fallen foul of a financial freeze by the Strategic Rail Authority, which has suspended consideration for new applications for funds until March 2004.

In addition, an unpredictable change in franchise agreements in the summer could delay the work even further.

First Great Eastern spokesman Peter Northfield, who lives in Witham, said: "All our franchise contracts expire at the end of March this year, so we do not know what the situation will be after that."

Mr Bigg fears that the bridge over the line from the Easton Road car park, first promised two years ago, will be lost under red tape.

Now the association has asked the National Audit Office to investigate the management of the project.

Published Thursday, January 30, 2003

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