£2.4bn rail upgrade plan announced

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The programme will include the lengthening of hundreds of platforms, speed rises on some lines, new tracks and major resignalling schemes. NR chief executive John Armitt said the programme was a response by the company to the rising demand for rail travel.

However, Network Rail admitted that many of the projects had been identified before and that only about £200 million of "new" Network Rail money was going into schemes.

The £2.44 billion of "enhancements" - new schemes to improve the railway - will be carried out from this month to March 2009.

NR will fund £1.73 billion of the schemes, with the rest of the money coming from other stakeholders in the railways, including the Department for Transport and local authorities. At £1.2 billion a year, the total is more than double the average annual spending on enhancements.

Schemes being worked on over the next two years include projects connected with the 2012 Olympics, on which £109 million will be spent by March 2009.

Around two thirds of a £300 million new line between Airdrie and Bathgate in Scotland will be completed over the next two years. Other projects include new platforms at Manchester Airport station and at King's Cross in London as well as £165 million worth of new track in the Trent Valley.

Mr Armitt said: "The railway is thriving. Demand for rail continues to grow and today's news outlines Network Rail's response to those demands. Three million people use the railways each day, more than at any time in the past 60 years, and we're not standing still waiting for the big infrastructure projects to be delivered."

But shadow transport secretary Chris Grayling said: "It is quite clear Network Rail is starting to behave just like the Government. These schemes have all been announced already and some are already nearing completion.

"It is disingenuous to claim that the company is embarking on a major new plan of activity in this way. What we need is a clear strategy of urgent action to deal with overcrowding, not the re-announcement of old projects to create favourable headlines."