Derailed train will not hurt tourism, says council

Disruption caused by a derailed train in Essex was unlikely to have an impact on tourism in Southend-on-Sea, the council said.

The Greater Anglia service from Southend Victoria to London Liverpool Street came off the tracks in Wickford on Friday, leading to the line between Billericay and Hockley being shut.

Greater Anglia said the damage to more than a mile and a half of track was expected to take another week to repair, with passengers being directed to use alternative rail replacement buses and shuttle rail services.

Matt Dent, the cabinet member for business, culture, music and tourism on Southend-on-Sea City Council, said the area was "lucky" to be served by a second railway line.

A twice-hourly shuttle rail service is running between Southend Victoria and Hockley, and between Billericay and Shenfield, with a rail replacement bus service between Wickford and Southminster.

Tickets are being accepted on the c2c line, which runs from London Fenchurch Street to Southend and on to Shoeburyness.

Philip Miller, the chief executive of the Stockvale Group which owns Adventure Island in Southend, told the BBC about 20% of his visitors travel by train and the derailment was "bound to have some impact" on business.

"It will take a slice away because there's a lot of people that really rely on those trains because parking is so dear on the seafront," he said.

"But they've got the c2c line which… [is] very reliable, very solid," he added.

Dent said: "The impact [of the derailment] hasn't really been enormous" due to the second train line into the city.

"Hopefully they'll get [the line] back up and running soon but in the meantime, we are a lot better off than many other places would be," he added.

Alpine Taxis, which is positioned next to Hockley Station, said the railway line closure has affected business.

Its manager Peter Richmond said trade had been down by a third over the weekend, and people were choosing to work from home rather than commute.

"We had no bookings this morning," he told the BBC on Tuesday, adding he only had "about four or five" on Monday.

"It was going bad anyway because of the cost-of-living crisis - this is just the icing on the cake," he said.

Greater Anglia has apologised to customers for the disruption and said engineers were working "around the clock" to get the line reopened as soon as possible.

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