A broken rail which caused major disruption for mid-Essex commuters today (Tuesday) could not have caused an accident, according to Railtrack.

The crack was discovered by a train driver at 6.30am between Witham and White Notley on the Braintree branch line.

All trains were cancelled for hours while engineers checked the damage and replaced a 60ft section of track.

Operator First Great Eastern set up emergency bus services to ferry passengers between Braintree and Witham.

Railtrack today said the cracked rail could not have put passengers at risk.

A spokesman said: "This is a crack in the rail. A broken rail is not uncommon. It was still physically possible for a train to pass over it - it does not present a danger.

"We are very sorry that this has come about and caused delays to customers of First Great Eastern."

A First Great Eastern spokeswoman said everything was being done to fix the broken rail and she was hoping normal services would have resumed by mid morning.

David Bigg, chairman of the Witham and Braintree Rail Users' Association, said some passengers were up to an hour late for work due to the disruption.

A cracked rail on the Essex mainline was found at Kelvedon in October just days after the Hatfield train crash where four people died.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.