Rail blueprint 'puts passengers first'

About £330m is earmarked for track and signalling

The long-delayed 10-year blueprint for the railways will "put the interests of passengers first", Transport Secretary Stephen Byers has pledged.

He told the Commons that the Strategic Rail Authority's £67.5bn package of measures "draws a line in the sand" and would offer "no more excuses" for the ailing rail industry.

No more vague aspirations or grand visions strong on rhetoric but weak on delivery

Transport Secretary Stephen Byers

Mr Byers, under fire for his handling of the Railtrack crisis, said: "We do not have a railway system fit for the 21st Century."

The plan was "just a start", he said, which contained "an agenda for action", not "vague aspirations or grand visions".

But there was little cheer among commuters, who were largely sceptical of the plans.

Shadow transport secretary Theresa May said the plan contained "no new money, no new schemes and no hope for passengers for the future".

Easing overcrowding is one of the objectives

She denounced its contents as "cosmetic gimmicks from a failed secretary of state".

There was no new money in Mr Byers' announcement.

The £67.5bn is split between £33.5bn of public money which the government hopes will be matched by £34bn from private investors.

Twenty-nine billion pounds of the public sector contribution was announced 18 months ago, and the remaining £4.5bn since then.

Ministers claim what is new is where the money will be spent and when passengers can expect to see improvements.

Earlier on Monday the SRA chairman, Richard Bowker, told the BBC the plan would reverse declining standards and the "deteriorating quality of management".

He said: "Our view is that over a 10-year time frame we will have got a railway that Britain is proud of", and added that investment was already under way.

'Spectre of Railtrack'

The improvements fit in with the government's aims to have 50% more passengers and 80% more freight on the railways, with less overcrowding, by the end of the plan.

Line upgrades by 2010

West Coast by 2005

Connex South Eastern by 2005

Channel Tunnel rail link by 2006

Thameslink 2000 by 2008

East Coast by 2010

South West Trains by 2010

Railtrack Group chief executive Steve Marshall said the government would not attract the investment it needed unless Railtrack shareholders got value for money, and only if the company was taken out of administration.

"The spectre of the treatment of Railtrack - as it languishes in administration - and its investors who are being invited to underpin the massive new investment, casts a shadow over the delivery of the plan," he said.

The SRA, the government body responsible for the improvements, has accepted the plan's success depends on an end to the Railtrack crisis, restoring confidence and stability in the rail industry and tackling skill shortages.

Key plans

1,700 new coaches in the South East by 2004

£370m of improvements at 1,000 stations by 2004

Another £330m for track and signalling by 2007

£430m for local rail schemes

Possible combining of existing franchises

Improved staff training

Train warning system by 2003

Liberal Democrat transport spokesman, Don Foster, said the plans were "long overdue".

They include a train protection warning system on all lines by next year, the replacement of all "slamming door" trains, and the completion of the Channel Tunnel rail link's first phase.

London and the South East is focused on particularly in the plans because 70% of train journeys start or end in the capital.

Commuter lines, including the West Coast and East Coast mainlines, will be upgraded.

Some projects are unlikely to happen before 2010 including the London Crossrail scheme; a north-south high-speed line and new rail links to Heathrow, Edinburgh and Glasgow airports.

The report comes as a BBC investigation into 18 of the 25 train operators for File on 4 revealed only eight are making a profit, with 10 facing losses totalling £120m.