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Britain has unveiled plans to spend more than 10 billion pounds ($25 billion) to expand rail capacity in the next seven years, providing 1,300 extra train carriages and an upgrade to London's Thameslink line.
But an expansion of Britain's high-speed rail network was put on hold by Tuesday's 30-year rail plan.
More than 1 billion passengers a year use Britain's railways, and the minister for transport, Ruth Kelly, told parliament the investment was needed to cope with an expected 20 per cent increase in demand by 2014.
Passenger groups said they feared fare increases to pay for the improvements, but Rail Minister Tom Harris said growing demand meant the rail system could increasingly support itself with less in subsidies from taxpayers.
"If people are saying we're allowing train companies to price people off the railways, show us the evidence ... demand is growing," he told reporters.
Britain's railways are booming again after decades of neglect, and 340 million more people a year are now using them than 10 years ago, Kelly told Parliament.
Disasters such as the Ladbroke Grove crash, which killed 31 people in 1999, and the Hatfield crash a year later, which killed four, have made the railways a hot political issue.
- REUTERS
