TRAIN services between Norwich and London Liverpool Street have now returned to normal after numerous cancellations due to overhead wiring problems.

The first service to be cancelled was the 9.30am train.

Services were disrupted between the two destinations until 3pm, despite rail lines reopening around 1pm.

The issue meant that only an hourly service between Norwich and London was available, and those services that were due to run were also experiencing delays of up to 30 minutes.

Between Diss and Norwich there were no services running at all, with bus replacements laid on.

National Express East Anglia (NXEA) said the problem was caused by a tree branch hitting an overhead line. Engineers from Network Rail worked to fix the fault, which caused massive disruption for rail passengers at Diss, Ipswich, Manningtree and Colchester.

Trains which started their journeys from Ipswich to London Liverpool Street were not disrupted.

A spokesman for NXEA said: “The issue has been caused a tree which is obstructing an overhead line in the countryside between Diss and Norwich.

“Engineers from Network Rail are currently working to resolve the issue.”

A spokesman for Network Rail said: “Because of the high winds, a tree was causing obstructions to the overhead power lines. This lead to disruptions to services in the area.

“Our engineers eventually were able to chop the offending tree down and services were able to resume.”

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