if network rail cant build 800 yards of track from london bridge to the hop market over land it already owns to make thameslink operate and cant run trains from heathrow to st pancras and stratford over lines built with public money and ready to go ???

g p edlin, london , uk

Really sad when one remembers that Britain used to lead the world in train services and introduced them to many countries. Taking them from being a national asset and service to being business ventures, was of course the greatest of misdemeanours as far as transport for theUK was/is concerned.

Rex Shore, Kathmandu, Nepal

To "Tom, Lancs", you really want to open your eyes then but I assume you don't travel by train much. Services between Preston and Manchester and Preston and London are frequently full to breaking point at peak times and few seats are left during evening time as well.

Kevin Rogers, Preston, Lancashire

There's only one sensible place to build new railways- on the motorways.

Richard N, Folkestone,

New lines will take decades. What can and should be done NOW is to extend platforms and add carriages to existing services. Remove some bottlenecks and run additional trains.

An example would be the "Thameslink 2000" programme which has still not started, let alone delivered the promised service.

James, London, UK

"Passengers face acute overcrowding"
I giggled on the first line. The day I see a full train in the north I'll swallow my tongue

tom, lancs, UK

David Chorley, Tulsa. Double deck trains wouldn't work, they wouldn't fit under any bridges, unless you're suggesting that all road network be upgraded at the same time.

David Leslie, Perth, Scotland

The money has been frittered on non performing Labour special interest groups, bureaucrats and second rate but world class expensive "public" services. Education a The spending priorities on core Labour voting groups has now backfired - as all working people can now see in inflation and tax rises.

Steve Bell, London,

privatise the railways properly, sell the lines to stagecoach virgin etc, so they can invest as they see fit.
more importantly we should go maglev, this would see trains travelling at upto 500 mph, and would be vastly superior yet cheaper to run than the much vaunted french system

will, grimsby, uk

No more studies please! Spend the money on actually doing something!

Frank Upton, Solihull,

Neil Turner, of course the government funds road building (and much else) through increasing the costs of using a car. There is car tax, fuel duty and tax, insurance tax, VAT on new cars etc.

David Leslie, Perth, Scotland

The reason costs are so high in England is simply Bureaucracy and a serious lack of control with most publicly funded projects. To compare size and performance one should look at South Korea's KTX high speed lines; brilliant, reliable and only £22 to go from Busan to Seoul (London to Edinburgh).

Richard Irwin, Bristol, UK

Hardly a surprise - I hate flying so the trains should be doing rather well out of me. Unfortunaltely broken air-con, threatening drunks, violent, ticketless passangers, disgusting toilets, lack of food, dirty carriages, late trains mean that - yes - I take the car instead. Rubbish trains!

David, Edinburgh,

If you use double decker carriages (as Caltrans in the SF Bay Area and in the Greater Toronto Area) , you will need to double the size of the stations as well. Maybe that would put the end to the marathon run of people that seems to happen when a London-to-Liverpool train arrives late.

Michael, Edinburgh,

This isn't about politics it's about demographics - we all want to travel to London to get there you need transport Demand exceeds supply > crowding + pressure on transport system. Under investment for years, yes even before 1997 If you want train system like France you will pay much more tax.

Peter, London,

So Labours policy of pricing us off the roads and onto public transport has worked. Shame that they didn't think that we would need a beefed up rail network to cope! Oh well now they'll price us off public transport too, at least that will reduce the need to spend 'public' money on infrastructure!

dave taylor, London,

We used to have a railway network that was the envy of the world.

We now have third world status.

Perhaps a solution to overcrowded commuter trains is to adopt practices obseved in downtown Bombay.

Clinging to the carriage roof or sitting on the buffers would ease the situation.

sisan leigh, salford, england

Funny how all the stops could be pulled out (and with great haste) for the Falklands, Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq wars. Britain is good at wars but perhaps nothing else these days. Maybe politicians should re-deploy this same effort for the building of a totally new railway system in Britain.

B Redfern, Zdole, Slovenia

Oh dear but we've been told that we need hundreds of thousands more workers to meet the demands of industry. I know, we could start putting people on top of the carriages & let them hang out of the doors. We all ready have 3rd world working conditions/wages so why not let commuting go the same way?

Graham, St. Albans, uk

This is what we have to show for 11 (count them) years of continuous Labour government, with Blair in charge and Brown holding the purse strings.

Maybe we should keep NuLab on for another 11 years, just to make sure all those who voted for them have got the message. By then we'd envy Zimbabwe.

Tom Welsh, Basingstoke,

Rtaher than stupid, impractical and expensive ideas like high-speed lines and double decker trains the money should be spent on lengthening trains and platforms. The obsession with speed should be subordinated to delivering capacity and timeliness. Nobody "needs" to be 15 minutes quicker to London.

Phil, Lancaster, England

The problem is excessive population density. This is particularly keenly felt in the southeast where the impact on our quality of life is massive. Why does the government keep on building new homes in and around London when the infrastructure cannot support it?

Tom, London, UK

Why don't the government give incentives for employers to move out of the big city centres especially London then we can all apply for decent jobs closer to home.

Even better why don't the government give incentives/enforce jobs that can be done at home to be done at home via the internet.

Kevin Smith, Sudbury, England

Getting the public to fund the cost of the network (through increased fares) is so shortsighted. Do the government do this with roads? Of course they don't! Increases in train fares will push people back into their cars, which is the last thing anyone wants.

Neil Turner, Worcester,

The Greens should make up their mind! Allow more rail tracks without objection or accept more cars and lorries. Its that simple. Also the government would be VERY Green if it increased rail subsidies not reduce them!

andy, london,

Instead of wasting so much money on talking about new lines why don't they actually build something?

They needent be built to run at 220mph. 140 or 160 plus a more reliable journey time would be sufficent for this country's shorter distances.

Luke, London, UK

An expanded train network with hi speed lines would decimate the domestic new car, airline and oil industries . How much do BA, BAA, Ford, Vauxhall, Shell , BP bank roll the Labour Party? Socialism/environmentalism is for losers. Politics is about winning elections. We will never have the above.

Nimesh, Aberdeen, UK

It just shows the incompetence and corruption of this regime and their cronies in the rail network. In 97 we were promised a new rail network, "the envy of europe", Prescott said. Where has all the money gone. One would have to guess into the pockets of Labour's cronies.

bill luke, st helens, UK

I bet Brunel is spinning in his grave right now. The victorians built thousands of miles of track with picks and shovels. Why does it take so long? Scrap the endless reports,commitees etc and start building!

Malcolm Bates, Durham, England

John Presscott told us prior to labour becoming the government that Britain would have a rail system the envy of Europe. Railways was Presscott's first job
he was later given alternative responsibilities, I wonder
why.

Barry Holmes, Christchurch, New Zealand

Increasing carriages would help. I unfortunately use East Midlands trains who regularly leave passengers at the station because their seemingly standard 2 carriages per train are full. And with their obnoxious jobsworth staff its rail hell. Our 45 min journey regularly takes 3hrs

laura, Nottingham , UK

The rail network needs to have its physical size (loading gauge) enlarged to that of the western U.S. Shorter double deck passenger trains would occupy smaller spaces on the network, be more comfortable, energy efficient and safer. Freight haulage could be cheaper. A real political leader is needed

David Chorley, Tulsa, Oklahoma USA

HS1 is built to a full French specification and is capable of accomodating duplex (double decker) carriages from Paris to its present terminus at St Pancras.
If Crossrail (Snailrail) was scrapped the money could be used to extend HS1 to Reading & Watford Junction, to the same French specification

Peter Hooper, Windsor, UK