Plans for a "new and exciting era of rail travel" unveiled yesterday by Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly were immediately criticised by opposition parties for not going far enough, soon enough.
Delivering a statement to the House of Commons she made it clear that rail passengers rather than taxpayers would be paying for sustained investment in the railways, but she pledged strict controls on fare increases.
"We are determined to continue to protect passengers, any increases in regulated tickets will remain capped at RPI +1%. These account for over half the use of the railway and include season tickets and saver fares," she said.
Promising investment of billions of pounds for a railway system that would double the number of passengers by 2003 she pledged investment of £10bn to increase the service and length of trains.
On the margins a row broke out over the absence of proposals for a high-speed rail link between Scotland and London as government minister's accused the SNP of hypocrisy and naivety.
Angus MacNeil, the SNP's Westminster transport spokesman, condemned the government transport policy on environmental grounds, and its failure to plan a high-speed rail link, but Tom Harris, the Transport Minister, pointed out that the SNP had not supported any of the government's investment to date.
He said: "Angus doesn't understand that to increase the top speed of any train by 15% requires an increase in energy of 90% so it is frankly naive to assume a high-speed link would in some way be environmentally friendly.
"By 2009, we will have invested more than £8bn upgrading the west coast main line between England and Scotland, every penny of which the SNP opposed. In the meantime, while we have been looking at ways to increase capacity on the west coast line the SNP have been busy cancelling rail and tram projects in Scotland and giving the go-ahead to roads. So, no lessons from the SNP on environmental credentials."
Ms Kelly hailed the white paper as "the most ambitious strategy for growth on the railways in over 50 years".
She pointed out that safety had improved and reliability was back to the levels seen before the Hatfield rail crash, with 88% of services arriving on time, and by 2014 she said she wanted to see the figure rise to 92.6% through investment in new rolling stock, better maintenance and equipment.
Ms Kelly said the investment would provide nearly 100,000 extra seats on inter-city and commuter trains, and she promised a "radical simplification" of the fares structure and a "fair balance" between the demands on taxpayers and farepayers.
Theresa Villiers, the shadow transport secretary, said she welcomed progress on the rail projects outlined but urged MPs to restrain their enthusiasm until contracts were signed and work was started.
And LibDem transport spokeswoman Susan Kramer described the white paper as a "missed opportunity" to get people out of cars and planes and onto the railways.
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