RAIL passengers faced major delays when a power failure caused signalling problems on the c2c line.

Those using the line between London and Southend suffered delays and last- minute train cancellations after a problem at Pitsea station.

Trains travelling in both directions on the c2c line went down at about 10.40am yesterday due to what officials called a signalling problem due to a power failure in the area.

The train operating company said the engineers had resolved the problem by 1.20pm, but knock-on delays and short notice cancellations continued to plague passengers throughout the early part of the afternoon.

By peak time, however, services were running on time.

A spokesperson for c2c said: “The service fully recovered by 1.20pm after engineers from Network Rail went down to the site.

“The problem was a power failure which affected some of the line-side equipment.”

Adrian Brown, chairman of the Thurrock Rail Users’ Group, said: “Although mechanical failures of trains, signals, and so on, are bound to happen from time to time, when they do occur it is most important the train operating company keeps its customers up to date.

“We are pleased c2c does understand the importance of this and endeavours to provide this, usually quite efficiently in the case of relatively minor and localised problems. However, there is some way to go in this respect when major disruptions do occur, which fortunately, is relatively infrequent nowadays.”