13 August 2025 •
We are very sorry for the disruption our customers experienced during yesterday’s evening peak.
What happened?
At approximately 17:45 on Tuesday 12 August, the London Fire Brigade responded to a fire close to the tracks at East Ham.
Due to safety concerns, trains were unable to run towards London, with some diverted to Stratford and others terminating at Barking.
Upon confirmation of service disruption, arrangements were made for c2c tickets to be accepted on Greater Anglia services between Liverpool Street and Southend Victoria.
At 18:35 the power had to be switched off to allow the fire services to dampen the area with water. Although this didn’t affect services running into London, it did affect services running towards Southend.
Although the fire was extinguished and power was restored at 19:00, this incident caused knock-on delays and cancellations to our service well into the evening. Further disruption was also caused by a distressed person on the line between Barking and Upminster.
Rob Mullen, c2c Managing Director, said: “I am sorry for the significant delays that affected your journeys yesterday evening. Due to safety reasons arising from a lineside fire, we were required to suspend and amend certain services. We recognise that this caused major disruptions to many of your travel plans yesterday.”
Simon Milburn, Network Rail’s Infrastructure Director, said: “We’re really sorry for the delays c2c passengers experienced yesterday. We worked closely with the fire services to minimise the impact of the lineside fire on rail services but the safety of those travelling and working on the railway is the most important thing to us while the fire is managed.”
Compensation for delays
If you have been delayed, you will be eligible for compensation for your journey. Find out more about the compensation we offer, and how to claim, here.
c2c smartcard users: You will receive automatic compensation provided you tapped your Smartcard at both the start and end of your journey. If you have not been able to do so, you will have to make a manual claim for your delay. This is because our system will not have full information about your journey and cannot calculate your automatic compensation. We recommend you check your online account to ensure our automatic payments do reflect your actual delay. If you feel they do not, you can use your online account to correct the automatic system or alternatively submit a manual claim.
Paper ticket holders, Oyster and contactless card users: Please fill out your details on this online delay repay form.
Contactless customers: Customers who travelled from a c2c station using pay as you with contactless ticketing can claim delay repay by providing the full details of their affected journey. You can access your journey history and statement from the Transport for London website by following these steps:
- Go to TfL and then click on 7 day contactless journey and payment history tab
- When prompted enter your personal information (name, address and email) and details of the contactless card used for the delayed journey
- Once the payment card has been located, the site will display a list of all journeys and payments made within the last 7 days
- At the bottom of the page there is a button where you can ‘download statement’
- This statement should be attached to your Delay Repay Claim: c2c Delay Repay | Claim Compensation on 15 Minute+ Delays