A full train service on the Great Eastern main line resumes into Liverpool Street on Monday morning after engineers finish installing temporary repairs to a cracked rail on the station approach.

A replacement specialist piece of track is having to be installed at the weekend after Network Rail engineers had discovered the crack on a routine inspection and had to close two platforms.

It affected rush-hour Greater Anglia services from Southend, Chelmsford, Braintree, Colchester, Clacton, Ipswich, Harwich and Norwich.

The temporary track replacement has to fit the curve on the approach to the station behind Bishopsgate. The crack was too big to repair, so the replacement has to be tailor-made for the curved cross-over track which won’t be ready until October.

Greater Anglia said it was sorry that trains were packed “fuller than usual” by the disruption with some cancellations and delays. It was “not possible to run all trains in the rush hour as normal” with two platforms shut off at such a busy station.

Saturday services are running as scheduled, but rail officials warn there may be some changes to Sunday morning services.