Greater Anglia passengers complained of suffering in "sweltering" heat with no water, food or toilets after a train was stopped near London for more than three hours.

The 7.26am Norwich to Liverpool Street service was held in the Bethnal Green area due to a train fault earlier today which saw exasperated passengers stranded just five minutes from their destination. 

According to one, the train came to a complete stop at around 9.20am, five minutes before its expected arrival time.

Eastern Daily Press: The train left Norwich station at 7.26am but would not arrive at its destination until well past 12pm The train left Norwich station at 7.26am but would not arrive at its destination until well past 12pm (Image: Paul Geater)

But hours later, tempers were fraying as the train's fault shut down the air conditioning, resulting in a sharp increase in temperatures as the weather outside neared 23C. 

According to the stricken passengers, no water or food was distributed by rail staff and all toilets locked from use. 

Those stuck inside also claimed announcements were sparse. 

A Greater Anglia spokesman apologised for the fault. 

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On Twitter/X, passengers in the train responded to a Greater Anglia tweet that warned of "minor delays" with outrage, saying they had been sat without word of rescue for hours. 

User @ollie__sutton said at 12.10pm: "Sat three minutes from the destination for three hours now. Toilets aren't even in use. Shall we just go in a bottle?"

Another user, @Donsderp, said: "Any chance you can get the driver to switch the air circulation system back on? Sitting on a train for almost two hours with no moving air isn't that much fun."

 

Eastern Daily Press: The train was stopped shortly before London Liverpool Street station where it sat for more than three hoursThe train was stopped shortly before London Liverpool Street station where it sat for more than three hours (Image: Newsquest)

A number of passengers complained of forward travel arrangements and business connections missed because of the hold-up. 

@AmmdiV said: "I have missed every significant meeting for the purpose of my travel this morning.

"There is no power and most concerningly there is no ventilation and airflow which is increasing the temperature in the carriages. The last update was 22 mins ago. Inhumane."

@andrew_nm added: "What a joke - limited announcements, sweltering hot train, no water. Shambles. I've already missed my Eurostar train, twice."

The train was finally released around 12:30pm when a rescue train was attached.

A Greater Anglia spokeswoman said: "We apologise to those customers who were severely delayed on their journey between Norwich and London Liverpool Street this morning.

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"The 07.26 Norwich to London Liverpool Street service developed a fault at Mile End, near Stratford.

"Engineers tried to fix the fault and get passengers on the move as soon as possible.

"Another train was sent to rescue the broken-down service, which was then towed to Stratford station, from where customers could then continue their journeys.

"During the time the engineers were trying to fix the train, power had to be isolated on-board, which unfortunately meant that some on-board facilities, including the on-board toilets, were unavailable.

Eastern Daily Press: Greater Anglia have since issued an apology and offered all passengers a refund for their journeyGreater Anglia have since issued an apology and offered all passengers a refund for their journey (Image: Newsquest)

"Anyone who was affected by the delays can claim compensation on the Greater Anglia website.

"We’re very sorry for the serious inconvenience caused to customers on the affected train and we would encourage anyone who was travelling on this service to contact us directly to arrange compensation."

The rail provider recently saw its entire fleet upgraded in a £1.4 billion investment that also aimed to improve existing infrastructure and maintenance facilities.

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In total, fewer than 0.18pc of delays of up to an hour were reported on all Greater Anglia lines in the four weeks leading up to September 17. 

Only 0.02pc of services experienced delays of greater than 60 minutes and no services were delayed longer than two hours.