EXTRA measures will be put in place by train firm c2c during a nine day train line closure to cater for an expected influx of passengers.

The line between Southend Victoria and Wickford is to shut down from Saturday to allow engineers uninterrupted access to overhead power lines.

It means services usually laid on by Greater Anglia will not run.

And in a bid to cater for extra passengers, three C2C trains which normally start from Leigh will start back from Southend Central or Westcliff, and will make several extra stops.

These include the 6.28am from Southend Central, which will call additionally at Westcliff and Chalkwell, the 6.56am from Westcliff which will call additionally at Chalkwell, and the 7.22am from Southend Central which will call additionally at Westcliff and Chalkwell.

C2C will be accepting season tickets for the full nine days from Greater Anglia stations affected by the closure.

A c2c spokesman said: “The rush hours Tuesday to Friday will be our busiest periods but as the engineering work is taking place during the school holidays fewer of our regular passengers than normal will be travelling.

“As a result we’re expecting to be busy but to be able to accommodate passengers who transfer over from Greater Anglia.

“We do expect our car parks to be particularly busy and we advise customers to arrive early to park at the station, or use alternative ways of travelling to our stations.

“We expect Benfleet and and Southend Central to see the biggest increases in passengers, and we will have extra staff on hand at a number of stations to help customers with their journeys.”

Peter Slattery, chairman of the Southend Rail Travellers Association, said: “I think that if it’s sunny over the bank holiday there will be some overcrowding on the trains during the nine day closure, I expect a lot will end up standing from Southend.

“Works like this have to be done, but nine days seems a bit harsh on the commuters who are paying over £3,000 a year for a season ticket to end up not getting a seat.

“I expect some tempers will be frayed, especially when journey times will have an extra 45 minutes added. People will definitely be disgruntled and there will be some complaints but in 18 months time when this is forgotten it will be worth it in the long run.”

Resident Zak Johnson, 21, from Southend, warned of “chaos” and said the shutdown is “unfair” on commuters while Pete Cooper hoped for noise to kept to a minimum for people whose homes back onto train tracks.