Thousands of East Anglian rail passengers have been promised that normal services on the Norwich to London mainline will resume this afternoon after earlier disruption.

Thousands of East Anglian rail passengers have been promised that services on the Norwich to London mainline will resume this afternoon after earlier disruption.

Customers were being urged not to travel unless it was absolutely necessary this morning after engineering work to improve London Liverpool Street over ran.

Robin Gisby, Network Rail director of operations and customer services, said: “Network Rail is deeply sorry for the further disruption this news will cause to passengers. We have brought in additional manpower and are working flat out to restore services as soon as possible. We are very grateful for the support of the train operating companies and London Underground in helping us deal with these unacceptable delays.”

The work, which should have taken 10-days, involved demolishing a bridge and improving track and overhead lines on the approach to Liverpool Street.

Customers who were delayed by more than 30 minutes will be able to claim compensation from One, as long as they have proof of travel.

A spokeswoman said: “We apologise profusely to customers. We expected the engineering works to be finished on January 1 but because it over ran we have had to terminate trains at Stratford this morning. Some trains have also had to be cancelled as a result.

“We are really in the hands of Network Rail.”

One was expecting to be able to run a reduced service into Liverpool Street later this afternoon with a full service resuming tomorrow.

For more information visit www.onerailway.com.