Extensive rail damage causes week-long disruption after Wickford derailment
Passengers face major disruption until at least Monday after a train derailment near Wickford caused extensive damage to more than a mile of railway track and over 3,000 sleepers.
The Greater Anglia service derailed just outside Wickford Station on Friday, with two of its ten carriages leaving the tracks.
The final carriage suffered the most damage, being dragged for around a mile and a half before the train was brought to a halt.
Rayleigh & Wickford MP Mark Francois said the carriage effectively acted like a "knife", cutting through thousands of railway sleepers and damaging well over a mile of track.
Signalling equipment, cables and some of the overhead gantries also need repairing.
Nobody was seriously injured and the train was evacuated with passengers led to safety.
Essex Police arrived at the scene within ten minutes, followed by British Transport Police around ten minutes later, according to Mr Francois.
The Essex MP said he used a meeting with rail bosses and the Railways Minister to thank emergency services for their "very prompt and professional response".
The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) has examined the scene and will publish a detailed report into what happened.
In the meantime, the damaged train has been removed and repair work is underway.
But the scale of the damage means passengers face significant disruption.
Greater Anglia is currently running services from London Liverpool Street to Shenfield, where passengers can change for a shuttle train to Billericay.
From Billericay, replacement buses are operating to Wickford, Rayleigh and Hockley.
Passengers can then take another shuttle train to stations towards Southend Victoria, with the process operating in reverse for journeys towards London.
Mr Francois said he used the alternative route to travel home from Westminster on Tuesday evening and it took him "nearly two and a half hours".
Greater Anglia has warned that the line is expected to remain closed until at least Monday while repairs are carried out.
Mr Francois said the operator was working around the clock to try to reopen the line as quickly as possible.
He has called for passengers to be given more notice if the repairs are going to take longer than expected.
He said he had urged Greater Anglia that, if it could not guarantee the line would reopen by Monday morning, it should issue an update by Friday, including on social media, so passengers have time to make alternative travel arrangements.
Greater Anglia tickets are currently being accepted on c2c services as an alternative route.
Mr Francois said some passengers were also likely to be working from home for the remainder of the week because of the disruption.
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