30 April 2026 •
We are very sorry for the disruption our customers experienced last night on the c2c route.
What happened?
At approximately 14:00 on Wednesday 29 April, a piece of plastic was blown onto the overhead lines in the West Ham area.
As a result, no services could run on the London-bound track between Barking and West Ham until the obstruction could be removed from overhead lines. This severely restricted the number of trains we could operate into London.
While the first obstruction was removed by our Network Rail colleagues, another piece of plastic blew onto the lines at approximately 16:30, which then affected the peak afternoon service. Additionally, we had to close Fenchurch Street station for approximately 30 minutes due to overcrowding.
Upon confirmation of the overhead line incident, arrangements were made for c2c tickets to be accepted on Greater Anglia and London Underground services.
Once the second object was removed from the overhead lines by our Network Rail colleagues, we worked hard to recover the service for customers. While normal train operations resumed just after 21:30, the disruption resulted in unit and driver displacement, leading to further delays and cancellations across our service.
c2c’s MD Rob Mullen, on behalf of c2c Railway and Network Rail Anglia, said: “I am really sorry to all of our customers who have been caught up in the disruption on the c2c route over the last few days.
“We understand yesterday’s disruption caused significant inconvenience to your travel, particularly as it occurred during the busy afternoon peak. We collaborated closely with our Network Rail colleagues yesterday to resolve the issue, ensuring services were restored as quickly and safely as possible.”
“I would urge anyone caught up in the incident to share their feedback on last night’s disruption via the survey below. This will allow us to review our current emergency plans and help us respond better to future disruption. The survey results and updates to plans will be shared with and delivered in collaboration with our partners at Network Rail.”
The survey can be accessed here: https://forms.office.com/e/GYwshi8k19
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 https://contactless.tfl.gov.uk/ 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