LONDON: Nearly 1,000 train carriages will be added to Britain's railway system to tackle overcrowding in the trains, the government announced Wednesday.
The new rolling stock will be added to the services starting 2009 and the program will continue till 2014, a spokesperson for the department for transport said.
The additional coaches will be equivalent to one-fifth of the existing fleet and the entire project will be funded by the government.
Douglas Alexander, secretary of state for transport, said the new carriages will be used to add capacity to existing trains on some of the most congested routes in the country. The railway network catering to London and south-east England will receive special attention.
The government may buy the carriages and offer it on lease to railway operating companies. The estimated cost to be incurred on buying these carriages will be around 130 million pounds a year.
George Muir, director general of the Association of Train Operating Companies, has said without extra carriages, train travel in the country would become even more intolerable. He said besides the carriages, work on train platforms to accommodate higher number of coaches is also required to be undertaken.
