RAIL passengers faced more misery today following what was expected to be 24 hours of chaos after the line to London was crippled by a points failure and damaged overhead wires.

RAIL passengers faced more misery today following what was expected to be 24 hours of chaos after the line to London was crippled by a points failure and damaged overhead wires.

Passengers at Ipswich station were being advised not to travel at all today after overhead cables fell down yesterday afternoon plunging the service into chaos.

The lines to and from London were not expected to be fully re-opened until at least 4pm today.

A spokesman for 'one' railways said: “Unfortunately the problems are still ongoing.

“It was hoped last night that the service would be resumed by 12.30 today but it has been put back until 4pm.

“Trains are running from Norwich to Colchester and there is a bus service from Shenfield to Chelmsford.

“Passengers to London are being advised to travel via Cambridge though there is engineering work between Ipswich and Cambridge and a bus service between Dullingham and Cambridge.”

He said passengers should make alternative travel arrangements.

The chaos was caused by a points failure at Shenfield and damage to overhead wires between Ingatestone and Chelmsford at around 4pm yesterday.

Passengers on one train stranded just outside Chelmsford station had to disembark and be guided to the station on foot.

The fire service was called to help one passenger, a woman in a wheelchair, disembark from the train because it was not a station.

Ipswich and Norwich passengers travelling to and from Liverpool Street were advised to travel through Cambridge while passengers for Colchester were told to travel to Stansted before catching the connecting bus service.

Andrew Braidford, 42, of Cliff Lane, Ipswich, travelled from Liverpool Street to Stansted to avoid the problems, only to find a crowd of about 800 people waiting for buses at the airport.

Mr Braidford, who resorted to sharing a taxi with three others travelling to Ipswich in a bid to get home, said: “I'm appalled. We got to the car park at Stansted after being told there would be coaches there and there was nothing there.”

Ben Goldsmith, 26, of Ravenswood Avenue, Ipswich, waited an hour for a coach at Stansted but in the end had to get a taxi.

He said: “We were told every five or ten minutes there would be a coach available but in the hour I waited we saw only one going to Colchester and a huge crowd tried to get on it.”

The delays, which began at about 4pm yesterday, came at a bad time for rail operator 'one', which faced criticism after severe delays on Wednesday, which were caused when power lines came down, affecting signalling circuits.

Weblink: www.onerailway.com