COLCHESTER’S MP has called for a full investigation into the train line linking north Essex with London.

Conservative Will Quince has written to Louise Ellman, chairman of the Government’s Transport Select Committee, asking for an emergency session for the Great Eastern Main Line.

In his letter he talks about the poor service, including delays, cancellations and old carriages.

He claims commuters are not being considered for jobs because companies are aware of the line’s terrible reputation and the increased likelihood of them being late for work.

In the letter said: “The Great Eastern Main Line is a profitable line, with the franchise holder of the line contributing around £1.4 billion to the Exchequer over the past ten years. Yet the service received is amongst the worst in the country.

“The past few weeks have been even worse than usual. So many of my constituents have experiences delays every day for the past two weeks.

“They have had congestion due to late-running freight trains, delays due to wet leaves on the track, short formations due to extra carriages having to go in for maintenance, and cancellations due to members of staff being missing.”

Braintree and Witham Times:

The Great Eastern Main Line runs from London Liverpool Street to Ipswich and Norwich, stopping at Colchester, Clacton, Walton and Chelmsford.

The north Essex part of the line is run by Abellio Greater Anglia and the line is maintained by Network Rail.

A new operator will take over the franchise in October next year, and Government has already opened the application process.

Mr Quince said: “The message coming from the Department for Transport to commuters is this will be solved in the new franchise.

“We cannot say to the people of Colchester, who are paying at least £4,800 per annum to travel to London, they just have to wait.

“The recent service provided has been shambolic, bordering on incompetent.”

A spokesperson for Abellio Greater Anglia said: “We apologise to customers for the recent problems.

“We have been working with politicians and stakeholders as part of the Great Eastern Main Line Taskforce in making the case for the investment and upgrades needed to deliver the significant improvements for the route that we all wish to see.

"In the meantime, we will also continue to work in partnership with Network Rail to do all we can to improve train service performance, in addition to the £35.5 million we are investing in service upgrades as part of our current short franchise to October 2016."

A Network Rail spokesperson said: “We are investing around £170m this year on the line between London to Norwich to give passengers a more reliable and consistent service."