TRAINS will reach breaking point if thousands more homes are built across south Essex, according to a community action group.

The South East Essex Action Group Alliance (SEEAGA) fears demand for c2c and Greater Anglia services to and from London will soon outweigh capacity - creating havoc for commuters.

Between 65,000 and 75,000 homes have been proposed for the area over the next two decades.

Research from the alliance suggests both train lines need to increase their number of seats by more than a third.

Alasdair Daw, member and researcher at SEEAGA, made up of 13 groups against over-development, said: “People say South Essex is a good place to build houses as we are close to London.

“How can the railway cope and is this really a sensible place to build? The line into Liverpool Street and Fenchurch Street could grow a bit, but can’t keep up with the predicted growth. Building too many homes would be bad for everyone.”

He believes main issues are the the length of trains and how frequent they are - but fears there is little room for manoeuvre.

Mr Daw, who lives in Billericay, said: “Twelve carriages is pretty much the maximum amount that any of the services can take due to platform lengths.

“It’s hard to predict what would happen, but if people are struggling to get on the second or third train, it would be a concern. People would be trying to squeeze themselves on trains and there would be huge queues trying to get into the car park.

“Both lines would be equally affected as people try to avoid overcrowding and it could soon reach breaking point.

“It’s not possible to say which line will crack first, but when conditions on one become intolerable commuters will transfer to the other, and that may bring the second line to breaking point soon after the first.”

Philip Gibbs, an alliance member who lives in Langdon Hills, added: “There’s a limit where adding more carriages just isn’t possible or effective. I think the breaking point comes when all the trains are as long and as regular as they can get - once you reach that you simply can’t increase it any more.”

A c2c spokesman said: “We have existing plans in place to add more trains to our fleet, and since this report was written we have introduced 24 more carriages on the c2c route.”

A Greater Anglia spokesman said extra trains will be introduced in the summer. He added: “During our current franchise, we are replacing our entire fleet with brand new trains from 2019 which will allow us to increase capacity further. We will also increase our off-peak services on the Southend line from three trains per hour to four trains per hour from 2020.”