THOUSANDS of rail passengers heading to and from London today faced delays of up to an hour after overhead lines came down at Ilford in Essex.An early morning Great Eastern service brought down the wires – and engineers were today trying to establish the initial fault was with the wires or the train itself.

THOUSANDS of rail passengers heading to and from London today faced delays of up to an hour after overhead lines came down at Ilford in Essex.

An early morning Great Eastern service brought down the wires – and engineers were today trying to establish the initial fault was with the wires or the train itself.

Commuters heading into London from Ipswich this morning did not know about the delays awaiting them – although trains from the capital were showing up as "cancellations" on the station departure boards.

As the trains left, staff at the station were uncertain about the situation, but later the extent of the damage became clear.

"The overhead cables were brought down over the fast lines at Ilford," said Anglia Railways spokeswoman Keri Howard.

"But of these lines are going to be out of action all morning so all trains will have to use the slow lines through Ilford – that will mean there will be delays of up to an hour."

She hoped that the engineers would complete their work to repair the cables by lunchtime.

"By the afternoon we think services should be operating as normal again," she said.

Peter Northfield of First Great Eastern said two of their trains heading out of London were directly affected by the overhead line problems – and they were delayed by more than an hour and a half.

"It's still not clear how long it will take to get things back to normal, but it's fair to say things will be pretty difficult all morning," he said.

nFor up to date train information, see Anglia Railways' website www.angliarailways.co.uk which carries real-time travel information.