COMMUTERS travelling from Southend Victoria to London Liverpool Street are facing a complete nightmare over the frantic festive period due to ongoing rail improvement work.

A £250million project to upgrade the wiring close to Ilford between December 23 and New Year’s Day is expected to cause significant delays to the journeys of commuters during the traditional Christmas break.

Nicola King, 44, of Station Avenue, Wickford, has commuted to work in London since 1989. She said: “I think this is the third year in a row that the line has been closed over Christmas.

“I must admit that the service is improving. But I hope this is the last year of disruption, my journey to work last Christmas took around two hours.”

The work is also expected to help add the finishing touches to the Crossrail route across the capital.

Although it is expected to cause chaos, Network Rail and Greater Anglia say delays will be reduced as a result.

Further work is set to begin next month between Brentwood and Stratford to connect the Elizabeth line to the main route of the Crossrail.

The route is expected to increase central London’s rail capacity by ten per cent and allow 1.5million more people to have a less than 45-minute journey into the city.

Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia’s managing director, said: “We will make sure that customers can complete their journeys during all periods of engineering works, even if part of it is by bus. “These works are crucial if we are to get the modern railway we need in East Anglia, and combined with the new trains, we are getting to replace every single train on our network which should lead to a transformed railway for us all.”

Some commuters recognise that the work has to be done at some point in the year but that the busy festive period seems a strange choice.

Matthew Johnson, 27, of St Edith’s Court, Billericay, works in insurance in Stratford and will be affected by the work.

He said: “Although it seems a good idea for the works to be carried out over Christmas when some people aren’t at work, what about the rest of us who will be working or shopping for presents when we have the opportunity?

“I am not lucky enough to have two weeks off over Christmas and will still have to make my way in and out of Stratford every day.

“It’s going to be a nightmare of a journey every day, not something you want to have to deal with in the cold and when the festive season is fast approaching.

“All I want to do at the end of a long day in work in December is to get home as quickly as possible to the warmth of home, instead of traipsing across Essex trying to catch various different modes of transport. It is ridiculous.”

The c2c line from Southend to London Fenchurch Street and Liverpool Street is going to be working as normal the company confirmed.

There will be some changes to the service where the line will not always run to Fenchurch Street but a route directly into London Liverpool Street is guaranteed.

This guarantee, however, is not pleasing commuters who rely on their local station to get them to work every day and pay large sums for the convenience.

Trudy Allison, 46, is an annual ticket holder who relies on the line from Wickford to London Liverpool Street to get to work every day.

She said: “”For us commuters who have already paid for parking, when rail work is taking place we then have to pay for extra petrol and additional parking at Laindon!

“This doesn’t just happen over the Christmas period.

“I understand they have to do track work but compensation on an annual ticket would also not go amiss.”