Commuters packed "like sardines" on Central Line services experienced almost four times as many delayed trains last year than in 2013.

In the 2017/18 financial year, 271 trains from Bank were delayed for a sum total of 1,753 minutes once they reached Epping, new figures obtained through a Freedom of Information request reveal.

The data represents a stark rise in delayed trains and minutes lost.

In 2013/14 only 81 trains were late for a combined loss of 564 minutes and last year, 126 delayed trains forced commuters to spend 851 minutes extra on the 118 year-old line.

In addition, 100 fewer trains made it from Bank to Epping in 2018 than in 2017.

The anonymous person behind Central Line Rants - a Twitter account which compiles gripes involving the red liveried line - said: "The fact that the sum time of delays has quadrupled in four years is insane. We’re certainly in the thick of that, twice, daily.

"The departures to Epping between 2017 and 2018 have reduced by 100. It has been within the last year that I’ve noticed a severe reduction in Epping trains going eastbound during the evening rush hours.

"Most days I’m having to let at least three, sometimes four Hainault trains go by before an Epping one comes along.

"And when it does, you’re packed in like sardines or can’t get on at all. Then another three Hainault trains later, same again.

"More and more people are moving out of the city and travelling in due to house prices, and a lot of those places are on or around the Epping branch.

"At present there are nowhere near enough trains to Epping during the evening rush hour period."

According to Transport for London, work has been taking place over the last two years to "overhaul" the Central Line fleet and replace "life expired parts".

A spokesperson said: "This work has required trains to be removed from service so we have had fewer trains overall for service, which has in turn resulted in an increase in delays.

"The Central Line Improvement Programme (CLIP) includes a number of improvements, primarily the replacement of old traction motors with more modern traction motors which should help reduce the number of delays on the line as these are the source of our biggest reliability weakness currently. The CLIP starts in 2020.

"In addition, we also introduced a new timetable in August 2016 which increased the number of trains in the morning travelling to Epping."