A train operator has issued an apology to customers caught up in disruption in south Essex over the last 24 hours.

A lorry struck the overhead lines at the Fobbing level crossing at 12.30pm yesterday, causing damage so extensive no services were able to run between Stanford-le-Hope and Pitsea.

Network Rail immediately dispatched a team of engineers to the area yesterday who have worked overnight to repair the power lines.

However, due to the severity of the damage the disruption has continued in today’s train service with rail replacement buses launched and arrangements made for c2c tickets to be accepted on Greater Anglia, London Underground and bus services. 

Echo:

British Transport Police officers are also liaising with the highways team to ensure the area is kept safe as this work takes place.

A full service on this line is not expected to resume until tomorrow morning.

Rob Mullen, managing director of c2c, said: “We are really sorry to all of our customers who have been caught up in the disruption on the c2c route in the last 24 hours.

“We know this will have caused extensive delays to your journeys and our Network Rail and c2c colleagues are working hard to get our services up and running as quickly as possible.

“Unfortunately, due to the severity of the damage to the power lines we don’t expect a full service to resume on this part of the c2c route until tomorrow morning. We will keep our customers updated via our website and social media channels.”

Simon Milburn, infrastructure director at Network Rail, said “We’d like to apologise to passengers caught up in the ongoing disruption. This incident did serious damage to our infrastructure.

"Coming into contact with 25,000V overhead lines is extremely dangerous and I urge road users to take care when using level crossings, including checking the height of their vehicles.”