Thousands of commuters faced rush hour misery after a line-side fire led to the cancellation of trains between Ipswich and Liverpool Street.

Trains scheduled to travel to and from London were first suspended and then delayed by up to 90 minutes following a fire beside the tracks in Romford.

National Express East Anglia (NXEA) services ran a reduced timetable into the evening between London Liverpool Street and Shenfield.

And journeys between Liverpool Street and Shenfield were suspended altogether for around two hours immediately after the blaze broke out.

Passengers commuting back from the city, and travelling on the mainline between London and Ipswich or Norwich, were given the option of instead catching trains from London’s Kings Cross station with First Capital Connect to Cambridge, Peterborough or Ely, where they could pick up connections home.

Trains on all services through Romford were disrupted and the delays affected routes all over the East Anglia rail network including those via Chelmsford and Colchester.

The diversions meant passengers’ journeys were delayed by up to 90 minutes. By around 8pm the duration of hold-ups had halved.

Romford Railway Station was forced to close as local firefighters battled the blaze in Waterloo Road.

Disruption was made worse during the early evening by overhead wire problems between Tottenham Hale and Stratford,

A spokesman for NXEA ensured passengers that every effort was made to restore services as quickly as possible, adding: “We’re sorry for any inconvenience our customers have experienced.”