What is going on with Greater Anglia trains?

Passengers from south Essex who must commute from towns like Rayleigh, Wickford or Southend face what they call an “unreliable” service from the train operator but have few other options.

Yet both Greater Anglia and Network Rail are promising improvements are being done, so what exactly is the problem and what is being done to fix it?

Independent Basildon councillor David Harrison feels it is not an easy task for Greater Anglia, but says they knew this going in.

He said: “They have a very difficult job but they knew what they were signing up for when they took on the franchise and they have to deliver.

“Better arrangements are needed between Network Rail and operators because it is improvement work that cause a lot of the problems.

“Remember much of the improvement work they are doing will not be noticed until 2019.”

Ian Symonds, a commuter for 18 years from Wickford, claims lack of information, a poor service and endless excuses leave customers frustrated.

He said: “Almost on a weekly basis there is major incident with one incident or another causing disruption to thousands of lives.

“We endure speed restrictions because of the heat in the summer. In the winter it’s slippery rails or frozen points and signals. In the autumn it is wind and leaves on the lines.

“The list of excuses is tiresome and yet fares just rise and rise with no improvement in services whatsoever.”

Despite government recently stating that trains fares are to be made more fair and less confusing, commuters who hold a seven-day season ticket feel they are getting the rough end of the deal.

Mr Symonds, who works in finance, added: “The weekend services have also been hit with massive disruption with engineering work meaning no services at all for many weekends.

“Since I work some weekends and am a season ticket holder for a London football club it means I cannot rely on train services at weekends and have to make alternative travel arrangements.

“This is very annoying having paid my fare with my season ticket, yet the only alternative is a bus and then Tube train towards London adding considerable time to journeys.”

Mark Parker, 27, from Chelmsford, had a similar experience as a West Ham fan living in Essex.

At the start of the football season Greater Anglia were offering a season ticket which allowed travel to Stratford and back on West Ham matchdays that worked out at about half price.

He said: “It seemed like a brilliant offer at the start of the season, but when I bought it there was absolutely no warning of all the weekend engineering works that were on the horizon.

“Instead of a 25-minute train journey, we’ve been lumbered with replacement buses for at least half of the games, which means the same journey can take 90 minutes to two hours if the traffic is bad.

“The journey times have been so long that we’ve ended up driving to Basildon or Laindon stations to use the c2c line instead.

“If I’d known about engineering works I would not have bought the ticket in the first place.”

Juliette Maxam, Greater Anglia’s media manager, said: “The line has suffered from a lack of investment in the past and that is why so much work is being done to improve it.

“We are well-aware of the number of customers who are unhappy with the service which is why we are desperately trying to improve it.”

Ms Maxam added that whenever service was disrupted there were bus replacement services to make sure passengers get where they have paid to go and that this is not a cheaper option for the company.

“We are spending £5million on making our trains more reliable and to increase the number of miles that they can travel before developing a fault. Our trains are among the most reliable in the country when compared with trains of a similar age and category run by other operators, but we are always trying to improve them further.”

Network Rail confirmed they were doing work to improve overhead lines to make trains more reliable and asked customers to check before they travel.