Rail passengers face annual fare increases above inflation for at least the next decade to help to pay for 1,000 new carriages on overcrowded routes.

The Government pledged yesterday to increase the size of the train fleet by 10 per cent by 2014 to cope with a predicted 30 per cent increase in passenger numbers. Trains will be lengthened to up to 12 carriages but the busiest routes may not benefit until platforms have been extended.

Douglas Alexander, the Transport Secretary, refused to say whether the Government would fund any major schemes to expand stations.

Passenger Focus, the national rail passenger monitor, welcomed the promise of the extra carriages but said that major investment in the network was needed to make best use of them. Anthony Smith, the watchdog’s chief executive, said: “These new trains are only half the story. They must go hand in hand with longer platforms at stations like Waterloo, which are already operating at the limit.”

He said the Department for Transport had indicated that fares were likely to continue to rise above inflation to help to pay for the extra capacity. Fares have already risen by 1 per cent above inflation in each of the past four years.

Mr Smith said: “Inflation plus 1 per cent is going to be the minimum annual increase from now on. Over ten years that will build up to a very significant increase and we are in danger of creating a rich man’s railway.”

Angel Trains, Britain’s biggest train leasing company, said that the extra trains could be delivered by 2010 and it did not understand why the Government had set a date of 2014.

Mr Alexander said that the trains could start being delivered at the end of 2009, but he did not deny suggestions that the majority of the carriages would enter service only around 2014.

The department said that it had not yet decided where the extra carriages, which will cost £130 million a year, would be introduced. The worst overcrowding is on routes into Waterloo, London, where several of the platforms are too short to accommodate 12-carriage trains.

The extra carriages will also benefit services around cities such as Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool.

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