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Rail disruption for thousands as works overrun at Colchester Rail disruption for thousands as works overrun at Colchester
(35 minutes later)
Thousands of commuters in the east of England face disruption as overrunning engineering works in Essex have forced the cancellation of many trains. Thousands of commuters in the east of England faced disruption as overrunning £7m engineering works in Essex forced the cancellation of many trains.
Greater Anglia said "all lines are blocked" at Colchester with no trains able to travel through, affecting services between Norwich and London. Lines blocked at Colchester during the morning rush-hour reopened shortly after 08:00 BST.
It hopes to run a reduced service from Colchester, but is advising customers not to travel unless essential. But train operator Abellio Greater Anglia said delays would continue and advised passengers not to travel.
Ticketholders from Norfolk and Suffolk are being diverted via Cambridge. Richard Schofield, Network Rail route managing director, said the disruption was "clearly unacceptable".
Greater Anglia's website has also crashed, with the company instead being forced to deal with "hundreds" of messages on Twitter. "At the moment we're not fully aware of all of the issues," he said. "We will fully review what happened.
Richard Schofield, Network Rail route managing director, said a fault was found about 03:00 BST that could not be fixed in time. 'Mood of frustration'
"At the moment we're not fully aware of all of the issues," he said. "As soon as we've got trains running we will fully review what happened.
"For now it appears a number of things went wrong and we weren't able to deal with them as quickly as we would have liked to."For now it appears a number of things went wrong and we weren't able to deal with them as quickly as we would have liked to.
"It's clearly unacceptable and I apologise on behalf of Network Rail.""It's clearly unacceptable and I apologise on behalf of Network Rail."
Work started this weekend on the £7m upgrade of the aging infrastructure around Colchester station. It is due to take place every weekend until 6 July. Mr Schofield said the fault was found at about 03:00 but could not be fixed in time.
Abellio Greater Anglia's website also crashed, with the company instead being forced to deal with "hundreds" of messages on Twitter.
A spokeswoman for the firm said customers should only make essential journeys with "disruption expected to continue for some hours".
Work started this weekend on the £7m upgrade of the ageing infrastructure around Colchester station. It is due to take place every weekend until 6 July.
BBC Radio Suffolk reporter Luke Deal said dozens of "frustrated" commuters were gathered outside Ipswich Station at about 07:00.
He said: "There was a general mood of frustration. People were saying there had been a lack of information, with no word of replacement coaches."