A broken down train has prevented the minister responsible for the country’s transport system from visiting the Great Yarmouth area today.

Chris Grayling, Secretary of State for Transport, was due in the borough to canvas in the borough council elections for his party.

However he was unable to travel from Ipswich to Norwich Station to reach Yarmouth due to a broken down freight train.

Greater Anglia’s website said the broken down freight train had affected six trains to Norwich.

It said: “Due to a broken down freight train between Ingatestone and Chelmsford some lines are disrupted.

“Impact:

“Train services running through these stations are returning to normal but some services may still be cancelled, delayed by up to 20 minutes or revised. Disruption is expected until 14:00 20/04.

Customer Advice:

“Due to a freight train breaking down between Ingatestone and Chelmsford. The freight train is now fixed and moving forward. Train services are still subject to delays.”

As well as canvassing Mr Grayling was due to meet a reporter from this newspaper at the Gorleston Conservative Club for a short interview in which he would have been asked about dualling all of the A47, problems on the Acle Straight and the £120m third river crossing for the town.

MORE; third crossing granted national status

Network Rail said the responsibility for the broken down train was the freight company involved Freightliner, which sent out a engineering team to solve the problem. Once up and running it ran at about 40mph.