A COMMUTER said “inconsiderate” changes stopping trains from waiting for delayed transferring passengers will leave people waiting at stations.

Toni Chamberlain, of Bullfinch Drive, Dovercourt, commutes to Ipswich on weekdays and her husband commutes to London.

But she said they could be left waiting for half an hour at Manningtree Railway Station with Greater Anglia’s new policy, which means trains do not wait for connecting passengers using the Harwich branch line.

Notices at both Manningtree and Harwich Station state trains departing from the two towns between 4pm and 9pm will not be held for connecting mainline services.

Mrs Chamberlain said: “As commuters we have all been talking about it and we are all absolutely furious.

“The trains used to wait five minutes for a connecting service and suddenly Greater Anglia has taken the decision to not wait even a second.

“It’s inconsiderate when they used to have a policy of waiting five minutes for transferring passengers.”

In 2013 an uproar from commuters forced a U-turn on similar rules for trains not to wait for delayed passengers in Manningtree.

Harwich MP Bernard Jenkin joined residents to get the decision overturned.

Mr Jenkin said he hopes the decision will again be overturned.

He said: “It’s so inhumane to make passengers wait and it’s ridiculous.”

A Greater Anglia spokesperson said: “We want to make our services even more reliable and punctual, so we are focussing on trains leaving stations on time wherever possible.

“When a train is held to meet a connection, it can cause knock-on delays to a number of other services as well as those customers already on the train waiting to leave. To improve punctuality for all our customers between Manningtree and Harwich, services between 4pm and 9pm will only be held if the connecting service is arriving in the platform, unless there are exceptional circumstances.

“There are frequent services between Manningtree and Harwich, so customers should not have to wait too long for another train. Between 4pm and 9pm there are between two and four trains per hour between Manningtree and Harwich. We also run direct services between London Liverpool Street, Chelmsford, Colchester and Harwich in the evening peak. Customers delayed for more than 30 minutes are entitled to delay repay compensation."