Colchester resident left angry at continued rail chaos

Travellers to London have now had weeks of frustration due to rail replacement buses between Ingatestone and London, while work is carried out on the line.

Passengers travelling from Colchester have to get off at Ingatestone and get a rail replacement to Newbury Park.

Waiting - passengers queuing for the replacement buses at Ingatestone (Image: Credited) The delays have seen many people queuing to catch a bus to and from London.

Colchester resident David Smith was on his way to see West Ham play Brentford at the London Stadium and was furious at the chaos.

Mr Smith said: "There clearly aren't enough buses and when we got to Newbury Park, it was so crammed on the tube.

Tickets - David Smith's tickets still cost him £21 with a railcard despite his journey being affected (Image: Credited) "What really annoys me is they are advertising an hour and 40 minutes, but they know there is no way we'll get there in that time.

"They do that because they know if they advertise the journey being over two hours, people won’t use the trains.

"The lady from the coach company locked the toilets on the coach so we couldn’t use them - they're ferrying you around like animals and it's disgusting.

"It's a very poor show from Greater Anglia, there's no forward thinking and they need to lay on more buses.

"I fully understand they have to do these works, but they need to sort this out.

"It spoils the day, no matter the result."

The work has been causing issues for three weeks in a row and some claim the works have been causing issues for years.

When rail replacements are in action, passengers still have to pay the same price as usual, even with journey time extended.

A standard return train ticket from Colchester to Stratford is just under £32.

The Gazette understands there were accidents on both the A12 and A127 which caused delays to some rail replacement services.

Staff were on-site to monitor and assess the situation, react to demand, and keep people moving as safely and quickly as possible.

Greater Anglia say they are sorry for any disruption on Saturday and would encourage anyone affected to contact them direct.

The main reason for the works are carrying out track work to replace a switch and crossing at the country end of Chelmsford station as well as platform work and repairs. 

Details on the works can be found here - https://tinyurl.com/Network-Rail-works