Rail travellers between Suffolk and London faced a day of chaos on Wednesday because of problems with the overhead electricity supply near Colchester.

The main line from Liverpool Street to Suffolk and Norfolk shut down early, the last train left London at 9.30pm, to give Network Rail engineers more time to try to repair what was described as a major fault.

Only one line of the route was open just south of Colchester station - meaning only three trains an hour could run during the day forcing several delays and cancellations.

Network Rail hoped that its engineers working through the night could repair the faults and allow a normal service to operate on Thursday - but no one was able to give any guarantees about this.

A spokesperson for Greater Anglia said they were hoping to arrange some replacement buses for people hoping to catch very late trains - but nothing had been agreed yet an the strong advice was to leave earlier if possible.

They hoped to run a few buses between Witham and Colchester from where a shuttle service was being run to Ipswich and Norwich.

Passengers heading for Norwich were told they could travel via Cambridge at no extra cost - as could passengers for Ipswich although this would more than double their journey time.

The spokesperson said: “Network Rail engineers are on site and working to fix the fault, however disruption is expected to continue for the rest of the day.

“Tickets dated today will be accepted tomorrow. We are very sorry for the inconvenience caused.” 

The problem at Colchester is one of the most serious faced in the region for several years - and comes just over a week after Greater Anglia was named Passenger Operator of the Year in the National Rail Awards.

However the issue here is with Network Rail's electric infrastructure and not with the actual trains themselves run by Greater Anglia.

All claims for passenger compensation will be handled by GA which will then negotiate with Network Rail over the cost of the disruption.