Braintree's MP says his constituents have lost faith in their rail service amid concerns the town’s branch line is not given the same “priority” as the rest of the region.

James Cleverly has raised doubts about Greater Anglia in a letter to transport minister Andrew Jones.

It has seen Tory Mr Cleverly call for new measures to be installed to monitor the performance of rail companies.

The comments come following a disruptive start to 2019, which saw commuters face long delays and cancellations.

In his letter, Mr Cleverly described the service offered to passengers on the Braintree line as “extremely poor” and he was also critical of closures at the town’s rail station.

He wrote: “After over a week of bus replacement services over the Christmas period, commuters returned to work to experience issues with track defects, poor contingency plans, last minute cancellations and many short forms.

“Despite reassurances to the contrary from Greater Anglia, the branch line in Braintree is not given equal priority to the rest of the line and when its hourly service is cancelled in rush hour, my commuters have no option available to get to work on time.

"In addition the ticket office at Braintree station is often closed, leading to reliance on the ticket machine which is not always in working order and the loss of toilet and shelter facilities at the station.

“It has now reached the point where where my constituents are feeling very cynical and have lost trust in Greater Anglia. “

Greater Anglia has issued an apology to customers following the delays to its service in recent weeks. The firm says 70 per cent of delays are ‘factors beyond its control’ and the closures of Braintree train station have been caused by sickness to staff.

A spokesman added: “Sometimes we have to alter services or cancel some trains in order to get the whole service running back to normal as quickly as possible, and we are very sorry that it inconveniences customers.

“We’d like to reassure customers that we do try to ensure that it is not the same customers who inconvenienced every time.

"For example we cancelled a Braintree service but also altered a different service to make sure than another Braintree service would run on time.”