UNRELIABLE power lines in parts of Essex’s rail network will not be replaced until 2016 at the earliest.

Commuters faced travel meltdown last week after soaring temperatures caused overhead lines to sag.

Rail bosses promised the problem would be fixed by 2014 as part of a £200million upgrade, but it has emerged only work on the line from Liverpool Street to Chelmsford, which continues to Colchester, will be completed within three years.

Improvements on the Shenfield to Southend Victoria line will not start for at least another five years.

The news was met with fury by weary commuters. Tommy Rodgers, who runs commuter website trainrage.com from his home in Rochford, said: “'We are going to have at least another five years of misery on the Southend to Liverpool Street line. Why is it taking this long to upgrade, and where is commuters’ money going?”

Commuters faced a day of misery on June 27 as searing heat sparked chaos, with trains being cancelled and delayed.

The troublesome power lines were originally installed in the Fifties and Sixties. Rail bosses started the job of replacing them with more reliable technology in 2009 and have so far completed most of the routes between Liverpool Street and Stratford in preparation for the London Olympics.

The line to Chelmsford is next on the list. Work will stop at the county capital because the powers lines on the route to Colchester were installed more recently.

Shenfield to Southend Victoria has been pushed back into the next Network Rail funding period, from 2014 to 2019, with work scheduled to start in 2016 and finish two years later.