Benfleet and Leigh station queues after c2c smart card issues

The train operator says it's working on the issue but furious commuters took to Twitter demading action.

An image on Twitter shows a long queue with around 30 people waiting at Leigh Station. There were also long queues at Benfleet Station.

One said: "There are ridiculous queues at Benfleet as everyone is having to buy paper tickets, trains coming and going and the wait for the next one is now even longer because you’ve removed peak trains.

"As this is your fault, why can’t you let people travel and buy their tickets at their destination."

Last night the south Essex train line is blocked after a signalling failure between Barking and Fenchurch Street.

Just let people through this is ridiculous!! And yet again you’ve put your prices up! Cheers 👍🏼 pic.twitter.com/zgzBhQ6wir

— Lucia Fowler (@LuciaaF) March 9, 2023

Queue at Leigh station is a joke. Out the door round the corner, heading for the car park.

— timothy wainwright (@timw1974) March 9, 2023

Absolute joke, let people through you are stopping people from getting to work. Why make your issue their issue.

— Glen (@gpwiddows) March 9, 2023

Posting on Twitter a spokesman for c2c said: "We are currently experiencing an issue with smartcard loading today and are working with our partners to resolve this issue as soon as possible. We do apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused."