Network Rail to invest to ease crowding

By Pete Harrison

LONDON (Reuters) - Network Rail, said on Tuesday it planned to spend 2.44 billion pounds over the next two years on improvements to ease overcrowding on trains.

"Hundreds of platforms will be lengthened, new platforms added, new tracks laid, line speeds raised and capacity added through major resignalling schemes," the rail infrastructure firm said in a statement.

A new 300 million pound line will be built over three years linking Glasgow and Edinburgh, and about 400 million pounds will be spent on infrastructure towards the 2012 Olympics in London.

There will be over 900 individual improvements, it added.

"Three million people use the railways each day, more than at any time in the past 60 years," said Network Rail Chief Executive John Armitt. "We are doing something about it now by moving forward with hundreds of small schemes dotted around the country that will add capacity and ease crowding."

The plans follow a government announcement last month that it would fund an extra 1,000 carriages, equivalent to around a tenth of the existing fleet.

"For us to accommodate those trains, we've got to extend hundreds of platforms over the next couple of years," said Deputy Chief Executive Iain Coucher, who takes over from Armitt at the end of July.

The new rolling stock will be arriving at stations between 2009 and 2014 and will be targeted at the most congested routes.