Rail commuters have suffered a miserable day with scores of trains cancelled on the Norwich to London line.

Passengers heading from Norfolk to London Liverpool Street were hit by major disruption, with a dozen trains cancelled.

A line problem close to the capital led to a reduced service to and from Liverpool Street, with trains delayed by up to 20 minutes.

Greater Anglia services, which run from Norwich to London, were among those affected, with a dozen cancellations.

The 7.55am train from Liverpool Street to Norwich was the first to be cancelled, followed by the 9.30am, 10am, 10.30am, 11am, midday, 1pm, 1.30pm, 2pm, 3pm and 4pm services from the capital.

The 9.30am, 10.30am, 11.30am, 12.30pm and 1.30pm services from Norwich to Liverpool Street were also cancelled.

The problems were caused by a broken rail which meant trains were unable to use platforms 7 to 10 at Liverpool Street station.

Network Rail started work to fix the points at 10.30am, but services did not return to normal until about 4pm.

A Network Rail spokesman said: 'A faulty set of points on the approach to Liverpool Street meant trains were unable to use a number of platforms during Wednesday morning.

'Engineers worked to fix the problem as quickly as possible – however, while repairs were carried out our colleagues at Greater Anglia put in place a reduced service on the main line between London, Ipswich and Norwich.

'We apologise for any delays or disruption passengers may have experienced to their journeys.'

Greater Anglia also apologised to customers for the delays and disruption which affected services.

A spokesman said: 'A signalling problem at Liverpool Street station caused delays and cancellations to our services and Network Rail engineers worked as quickly as possible to carry out repairs. Unfortunately, some further delays occurred when a person was hit by a train in the Kelvedon area. Train services had returned to normal from about 4pm.'