RAIL passengers are facing more travel misery this Easter as works are set to close lines into London.

Network Rail engineers will be working across Easter weekend - from April 14 to 17 - to carry out Crossrail construction work at Shenfield and at stations on the TfL Rail line, and to continue to replace the overhead wires at Seven Kings.

This means all lines between London Liverpool Street and Ingatestone, and between London Liverpool Street and Wickford, will be shut.

No trains will run between London Liverpool Street and Ingatestone, Southend Victoria or Southminster.

Passengers are being advised to use the London Underground Central Line between London Liverpool Street and Newbury Park. Buses will operate between Newbury Park and Ingatestone, Southend Victoria and Southminster.

Rail replacement bus services will run every 15 minutes calling at all stops (except Liverpool Street and Maryland) as well as Newbury Park for the Central Line.

London Overground services between Romford and Upminster are also suspended, customers are advised to use the local 370 bus service to complete their journey.

Over the four day period, Network Rail says nearly 7km of new, more durable, heat-resistant wires that will not sag in hot weather will be installed at Seven Kings, where engineers have been working to install structures that carry the wires over the last ten weekends.

Network Rail says heat-related speed restrictions can be lifted meaning fewer delays for passengers all the way up to Norwich.

Richard Schofield, Network Rail’s route managing director for Anglia, said: “The work we are carrying out over Easter as part of our Railway Upgrade Plan is absolutely crucial to improve reliability and support the growing number of passengers travelling between Norwich and London. While I appreciate this does impact those travelling over the bank holiday, we have planned this work when fewer people travel. I’d like to thank passengers for their patience and urge those planning to travel over the Easter period to check ahead to see how their journey may be affected.”

Jamie Burles, Greater Anglia’s managing director, said: “We will make sure that our customers can complete their journeys, even though there is engineering work.

"We have booked over 270 buses for the Easter weekend.

"We also have a team of over 50 bus controllers a day who will help customers to catch the right bus. We know our customers would rather complete their journey by train, but we recognise that Network Rail’s railway upgrade plan will benefit the railway for everyone who uses it in East Anglia.”

Howard Smith, operations director for TfL Rail, said: “We are working closely with Network Rail to carry out station improvements and other work necessary to introduce the first of our new trains from May.

"Two trains have now been delivered to London and are currently being tested.  I’d like to thank customers for their patience while this work takes place and remind them to always check before they travel.”

Passengers can check their journeys at www.nationalrail.co.uk/easter or tfl.gov.uk/easter-travel or www.greateranglia.co.uk.