RAIL commuters face “wrong soil” hell after clay under tracks dried up so much that trains have to go slow.
Services between parts of Essex and London will be hit for two to three months.
Similar problems have affected the West Country after the driest spring since 1974.
Infrastructure manager Network Rail said it had dropped 12,600 tons of ballast to minimise clay shrinkage on the Essex route in the past year.
But this had not been enough to solve the problem.
It said speed restrictions had been introduced “to keep everyone moving safely”.
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One commuter said: “I’ve heard of leaves on the line and the wrong type of snow.
“Now the delays are due to the wrong type of soil.”
Network Rail Anglia and c2c Railway, which run services across the network, apologised for the disruption.
Buses will replace Greater Anglia trains for some late evening journeys on Mondays to Thursdays.
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