Rail company c2c today (Friday) told long-suffering commuters that full rush-hour services are to resume on Monday.

The company has been running only an 80 per cent service on the Southend to Fenchurch Street line as a result of a guards' dispute.

It introduced the emergency timetable because it claimed unofficial action at short notice by members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) meant it was impossible to provide a full service.

The recruitment of 13 new guards now allows it to restore full morning and evening peak services.

Route director for c2c, David Taylor, said: "We now have the resources at our disposal to restore peak services to pre-dispute levels, which is what our customers have been pleading with us to do since the dispute began, although it will still leave our off-peak fairly thin."

Derrick Marr, the RMT's national executive member for the London and Anglia region, cast doubt on the way the company had introduced the new guards.

He said: "It's my opinion that they have been rushed through the system."

The RMT held a day of industrial action yesterday (Thursday). The union is protesting about proposals to change the role of guards on some trains.

It has called a public meeting tonight (Friday) at the Towngate Theatre, Basildon, to be attended by local MPs, which starts at 6pm.

By Chris Weeks

Reporter's e-mail: chris.weeks@notes.newsquest.co.uk

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