13. To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps her Department is taking to tackle rail overcrowding on routes other than the west coast main line. (180547)

The July 2007 rail White Paper committed the Government to spend £15 billion on their railway between 2009 and 2014. £10 billion of that is specifically devoted to measures to increase capacity. These include 1,300 extra carriages, £5.5 billion for Thameslink and £600 million for improvements at Birmingham New Street and Reading. We have also recently announced a funding package for Crossrail.