TRANSPORT Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said he could not promise weekend engineering work will not over run into commuters' Monday morning.

It comes as Network Rail announced no weekend trains will run on the line between Shenfield and Norwich from the end of this month until March.

Mr McLoughlin was speaking in Colchester as he attended an event with Colchester Parliamentary Candidate, Will Quince tonight.

The Secretary of State said: “You cannot do a major upgrade as we are doing without disruption.

"You cannot do all this work and not sometimes have over-running.

“But we have got to make sure it is not a regular occurence.

“We need to learn the lessons from what happened over Christmas [at Kings Cross].

“Over-running does happen and we have to try to stop it.”

He added when a new franchise for the Great Eastern line is awarded in 2016, commuters could expect to see “huge” improvements.

He said: “When people see our investment they will see a government which is taking the railways seriously.”

Mr McLoughlin spoke to commuters at Colchester station this evening before attending an event at the Bricklayers, in Bergholt Road, with Mr Quince.

FOR MORE ON THE VISIT, SEE THURSDAY'S GAZETTE