LONDON—Britain has unveiled plans to spend more than 10 billion pounds ($20 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 percent 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.
"Passengers should not be forced to pay for the improvements through yet more fares hikes," said Jason Torrance of passenger group Transport 2000.
The government also promised around 600 million pounds of investment in the next seven years to tackle crowding at Birmingham's New Street station and to ease a bottleneck on the main east-west rail artery at Reading.
"This continued investment will provide nearly 100,000 new seats for passengers on intercity and commuter trains to our major cities," said Kelly.
High-Speed on Hold
But a controversial high-speed rail link between the north and south of the country, which some environmental groups are pressing for, appeared to be on hold.
"We're not taking that off the table, but we're not progressing that yet," Harris told reporters, adding that the environmental case for high-speed rail was not yet strong enough to make it a priority.
Theresa Villiers, transport secretary of the opposition Conservative party, said Tuesday's announcement was just a repeat of a number of old projects that had never been brought to fruition.
"With Thameslink 2000, the clue is in the name—the government promised this project seven years ago," she said. "I'll believe it when I see it. At this rate, it'll be more like Thameslink 3000 than Thameslink 2000."
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