TRAVELLERS have criticised Greater Anglia over a lack of communication after major signalling problems disrupted services on Saturday.

The issues left passengers stranded at Liverpool Street station as trains were cancelled.

Despite the cancellations, travellers said it was not made clear what replacement services were available.

Many passengers en route to Chelmsford had to get off at an overcrowded Shenfield as they were unaware services would not pass the station.

Chelmsford councillor Mark Springett, who was trying to travel back to Chelmsford, said scenes in London were awful.

He added: “We got to Liverpool Street around 5.30pm on Saturday to find large crowds just staring at the large departure boards – it’s always an ominous sign when that happens.

“It soon transpired that we were facing lengthy delays.”

Another Chelmsford councillor, Linda Mascot, who was also travelling back to Chelmsford, said: “Our journey from central London took four hours and while we are fit and healthy, babies, children, elderly and vulnerable people had a harrowing time.

“There was no sign of any emergency planning and with so many people on the platform you can’t even move, surely that constitutes an emergency situation.

“The staff at Shenfield were completely overwhelmed with so many people and so little information. It was a miracle that nobody was seriously injured or worse.”

Greater Anglia apologised for the disruption.

A spokeswoman said: “We worked closely with Network Rail to restore the normal service as quickly as possible, but we would like to apologise unreservedly for the inconvenience caused.

“We provided as much information for customers as possible, through a number of channels, but the extent of the problem proved to be greater than at first thought and the repairs necessary were more complex than initially envisaged.

“We understand it was frustrating and resulted in difficult, delayed journeys, for which we apologise.”