£9bn promised for more seats, quicker journeys and train reliability

Network Rail is calling it the biggest investment in infrastructure since Victorian times.
The firm’s plan for the western route, which runs from London Paddington to South Wales and the south-west of England via the Thames Valley, is designed to accommodate the continuing growth in passenger numbers.
The number of people using the Great Western mainline is now more than 50 million a year, and Network Rail predicts that this could rise by 51 per cent by 2030.
Included in the plan is the resignalling of the Great Western mainline ahead of electrification, which is expected to take place between West Drayton and Maidenhead by 2013, Reading to Newbury by 2014 and Oxford by 2015.
The electrification of the line will speed up journey times because electric trains can accelerate and break more quickly, and it will increase passenger capacity by using carriages with more seats.
The new trains are said to be quicker, cleaner, quieter, smoother and more reliable than diesel trains.
They are also cheaper to operate, requiring less maintenance, and have lower energy costs and carbon emissions.
Network Rail said that they were also lighter and do less damage to the track, helping to deliver a more reliable railway by reducing maintenance.
By 2015, control of all signalling between London and Bristol will be transferred to the Thames Valley signalling centre in Didcot.
A spokesman for the Thames Valley branch of the passenger campaign group Railfuture, Hugh Jaeger, said: “It’s all good news. We wanted investment of this type decades ago.
“Even though the Coalition has cut many things, one of the things it has embraced is electrification.
“All that passengers will notice is that it will be smoother, quieter and it won’t smell, but the planet will also notice.”
He added that having all of the signalling controlled from one hub was vital to allow all decisions to be taken centrally and problems resolved much more quickly.
He said: “It will make control of the line more reliable.
"There will be no communication breakdown because everyone will be in the same room.”
Network Rail route managing director Patrick Hallgate said: “This plan will provide a bigger and better railway for passengers and help support and drive economic growth across the Thames Valley.
“By the end of the decade, the Great Western mainline will set the standard for 21st-century rail travel in Britain and provide the capacity we need to cater for the continued increase in the popularity of rail travel.”