THE VIP guest at Walton railway station's 150th anniversary celebrations failed to arrive ... because his train was cancelled.

Sir Bob Russell was meant to be the guest of honour at Sunday's party.

The former Colchester MP had been invited to cut the cake at a special display at Walton Maritime Museum.

But he was left fuming after trains were cancelled between Thorpe and Walton because of a signal failure.

Sir Bob said: “Victorian engineers were able to build a railway line to Walton-on-the-Naze, but 150 years later it is says a lot about Anglia Railways and Network Rail that on a sunny Sunday afternoon they are incapable of operating a railway service for just a few miles. Pathetic.”

He added: “I thought it would be appropriate to travel to Walton by train, and everything was going to plan until we got to Thorpe where it is necessary to alight from the Clacton train and get on another train for the final leg to Walton.

“Alas, shortly after boarding this train it was announced there were signal failures and there would be a delay.

"Further announcements over the next hour or so culminated in being told that all services had been cancelled for the rest of the day and that a replacement bus service would be arriving within the hour.

“By now the 3pm event I was due to attend had long gone, so I caught the next train from Clacton and went back to Colchester.”

Sir Bob further observed: “A 150th anniversary is something which should be celebrated. Anglia Railways has already indicated what they think by announcing the closure of the ticket office at Walton-on-the-Naze Railway Station along with other closures on the line between Colchester and the coast.

“Anglia Railways, owned by the Dutch Government with a 40 per cent share owned by a Japanese company, have a cavalier attitude towards its customers.”

A spokesman for Greater Anglia said: "We are very sorry that Sir Bob was unable to attend the special event at Walton-on-the-Naze rail station.

"Our service was affected on Sunday by a signalling problem caused by high temperatures, which meant the set of points used to direct services onto the Thorpe-le-Soken to Walton-on-the-Naze branch line could not be moved and so trains could not access the line.

"Greater Anglia provided alternative transport as quickly as possible while Network Rail engineers worked to fix the problem.

"We are supporting Tendring District Council's plans to mark the 150th anniversary of Walton station and look forward to another 150 years of the station.

"We are consulting on closing the ticket office due to low use of it, but the station will remain open. We are spending £60million on improving stations and £1.4 billion on new trains as we are committed to improving the railway service in East Anglia for all customers.

"We apologise to everyone caught up in Sunday's disruption."

Anyone affected by the disrupted services could be entitled to claim money back at greateranglia.co.uk.

Sir Bob says he hopes to visit the 150th anniversary display later this summer - but insists he won't be going by train.