After the holiday... more rail chaos
MASSIVE delays left train travellers fuming again today as commuters at Ipswich rail station were told to go home when engineering works overran - again.
Peter Edwards
MASSIVE delays left train travellers fuming again today as commuters at Ipswich rail station were told to go home when engineering works overran - again.
Services to and from London Liverpool Street from Ipswich were severely disrupted by Network Rail's engineering works at Shenfield in Essex.
National Express told customers not to travel unless absolutely necessary and admitted there was not enough room on the platform for the number of would-be passengers.
Commuters were left trying to get buses laid on by the company as most trains were terminating at Ipswich or Colchester.
It was a case of déjà vu for commuters who had a similar nightmare when they tried to return to work after the Christmas break on January 2.
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On that day thousands of passengers were left stranded and told not to travel after engineering works overran.
Today National Express apologised and said: “It's a Network Rail engineering issue.”
Angry commuter Shirley Hurst, 59, of Christchurch Street, Ipswich, said: “It is ridiculous. They keep putting the rail fares up but the services don't seem to get any
better.
“I had heard there were problems today so I came down early as I'm going to Chelmsford to visit my mum.
“I've told her I don't know when I'll get there because when I get to Chelmsford, I have to get a bus to her place and it's going to take ages.”
Jill Casswell, a spokesman for National Express, said: “There are major delays. We advise customers to people to travel unless absolutely necessary.
“We would never turn people away from Ipswich station but we have not got the room to put them all on the platform. We are sorry.”
Were you affected by today's delays? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk
