PASSENGERS planning an early post-Christmas trip to or from south Essex today were confronted by major problems.Liverpool Street Station is due to remain closed until January 2, but a limited number of trains were due to have restarted to Stratford in east London.

PASSENGERS planning an early post-Christmas trip to or from south Essex today were confronted by major problems.

Liverpool Street Station is due to remain closed until January 2, but a limited number of trains were due to have restarted to Stratford in east London.

Today engineering work, which has seen the line closed since Sunday morning, overran and caused misery for early morning travellers.

Most rail passengers heading to London will be using a special coach link from Colchester to Liverpool Street.

The first trains of the day from Stratford were more than an hour late and ran from London only as far as Colchester - they did not make it through to Ipswich.

Other services were cancelled altogether as Network Rail engineers struggled to complete major work at Shenfield, near Brentwood, in Essex.

Jonathan Denby from 'one' railway said most people travelling from Ipswich to London should not be affected.

He said: “There are coaches taking InterCity passengers from Colchester to London because we were always aware there would be limited capacity on the rail lines around Shenfield and Stratford over these two days.

“Only people who are travelling between Ipswich and Shenfield should be affected and we apologise to them. The coaches are running well and the main work at Liverpool Street is well on schedule for completion by January 2.”