Greater Anglia squirting new multi-million-pound trains with LEMON JUICE to reduce delays

A RAIL company is squirting new multi-million-pound trains with lemon juice to keep them on track.

Greater Anglia engineers are using citrus oil on wheels and tracks to cut through fallen leaves.

The company says the liquid — also used to flavour fizzy drinks — will reduce delays and cancellations.

But passengers are not convinced it will do much to improve reliability of the new trains — dubbed Basils because they are so faulty.

Commuter Sinead Merron, 48, said: “The excuses they give are just crazy and the idea of using citrus oil just seems like a joke.”

The 58 Swiss-built Stadler trains, called class 755s, came into use on Greater Anglia’s services in rural Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire in July.

They are part of a £1.4billion programme to replace all of the company’s 169 trains. But they have been plagued by delays and breakdowns.

The company said citrus oil — or Citrusol — was a greener way of clearing fallen leaves, which turn into a slippery mulch on the track.

A spokesman added: “If left untreated, trains encounter difficulties braking and accelerating as the rails become very slippery.”

But one commuter said: “They’ve splurged £1.4billion on trains that barely work and they think the answer is lemon juice.

“They call them Basils and this looks like an idea straight out of Fawlty Towers.”