European rail travel is in demand

As the cost of fuel continues to rise Europeans are looking for alternative methods of travel. The demand for rail travel is increasing steadily and according to CNN an additional 10 million people are expected to use the rail system as an alternative means of travel by 2010.

The current method in use by the UK to improve rail travel is to add over a thousand extra carriages to increase the capacity of the rail system. An expansion project that would link East London to Heathrow Airport was approved several months ago which will also help ease congestion on the lines.

The current owner of the rail system in Britain is the government backed Network Rail Ltd. They are currently undergoing a series of surveys on several of the rail lines to determine if future capacity will exceed what is currently available. Network Rail Ltd is predicting an increase in rail travel of up to 30 per cent by 2018.

If capacity exceeds availability Network Rail has proposed adding a possible five additional lines to the current rail system in Britain today. These lines will be constructed in the northern and western regions in London. This would be a potentially huge expansion in modern rail travel as the only other large scale rail project in recent years was the addition of the link to the Channel Tunnel from Pancras Station. With the addition of high speed rail lines commute times could be reduced dramatically.
www.networkrail.co.uk/