Passengers travelling on the line from Shenfield through Chadwell Heath, Seven Kings, Goodmayes and Ilford were hit by huge disruption this morning when trains were delayed or cancelled at short notice.

Some trains also missed out stations on the route or terminated early.

Passengers on the services that were running reported serious overcrowding on Twitter.

A Network Rail spokesman said: “Owing to a track defect on the approach to Liverpool Street station, a revised service ran this morning as we were not able to use platforms 15 to 18.

“Engineers are on site working to fix the problem as soon as possible and we apologise to passengers for any delays.

“While repairs are being carried out Greater Anglia is operating a revised timetable for some Liverpool Street services.

“We estimate that repairs will be completed by 4pm and this will enable Greater Anglia to run a near normal evening peak service.”

Greater Anglia apologised for the disruption. Visit www.journeycheck.com/greateranglia for the latest information.

A signalling problem at Liverpool Street last month caused two days of similar disruption.

On October 22, staff had to close Ilford train station in the morning rush hour because of overcrowding caused by the delays.