Commuters were left seething and stranded after high winds virtually shut down the c2c line into south Essex at the height of the rush-hour.

Fuming rail travellers likened carriages to cattle trucks after damaged power cables caused severe delays last night.

It came as London Underground drivers voted heavily in favour of strikes in a dispute over pay, raising the prospect of travel chaos for millions of Tube users in the next few weeks.

Services on the c2c line were today getting back to normal after the chaos which saw the majority of trains on the Fenchurch Street to Shoebury line cancelled from about 4pm onwards.

The problems began after corrugated plastic sheeting from nearby buildings blew on to power cables just outside West Ham station.

Problems were compounded when Great Eastern trains reported overhead cable problems on the line near Wickford.

A c2c spokesman said: "We had problems with power lines from about 4pm when plastic sheeting blew across them between Limehouse and Barking. We could only run about 30 per cent of peak time services from then onwards.

"We couldn't get new trains out of the depot at West Ham so we had to run less trains and the ones that were running were packed."

He said problems eased between 7pm and 8pm when rush-hour pressure eased.

Published Thursday, February 21, 2002