NEARLY 100 irate commuters packed London Fenchurch Street this evening to protest against c2c’s controversial new timetable.

Anger has been growing in the past month since c2c made the biggest timetable change on the line in living memory.

Julian Drury, managing director of c2c, answered questions from frustrated customers and was grilled by MP for Southend West, Sir David Amess.

The protest itself was organised by James Savill, 37, from Stanford-le-Hope, who started the @c2c_customers Twitter account, which has been putting pressure on the operator to revert to its old timetable.

Confident Mr Drury insisted "this timetable will work" when questioned by commuters.

Chants of "Drury out" and "revert or resign" echoed around the station.

Sir David spoke in support of his constituents.

He said: "I will stand shoulder to shoulder with commuters until the timetable is reverted to the old one.

"The line had a reputation as being the misery line, I'm the man who got that changed.

"I cannot believe that I supported c2c in the renegotiation of the new 15-year franchise and then in the space of five weeks this first class service has been absolutely ruined as a result of these timetable changes."

C2c claim the timetable changes, which have led to complaints of overcrowding and longer journeys, were needed due to a 15 per cent increase in passenger numbers in the last five years.

The operator, part of National Express, was awarded the new Shoebury to Fenchurch Street franchise in late 2014.

Bosses set about designing the new timetable with instructions from the Department for Transport for the majority of trains to stop at London stations such as Barking, Limehouse and West Ham.

The extra stops and cuts in the number of carriages on trains sparked anger, forcing the operator to tweak the timetable since its introduction in mid-December.

On Wednesday the latest raft of changes were announced, with increases in carriage numbers for the busiest trains.

Bosses promises extra carriages will be leased in from another provider from spring onwards.

The amendments are not enough for most commuters.

Jon Galgey, 34, from Chalkwell, said: "Reverting to the old timetable right now is the sensible thing to do.

"The more disappointing thing is the arrogance of the statements being made.

"They are company comments, they are not interested in customers and it is unacceptable."