The railway in recent years has been a success. Since privatisation, passenger numbers are up by 40 per cent.—driven by a strong economy, improving services, new trains and Government investment.
We will continue to increase capacity through the franchising process and in other ways. In particular, the Secretary of State announced on 14 March that the High Level Output Specification, to be published in the summer, will include a commitment to a thousand extra carriages. They will be targeted at the most congested routes on the network.