Video: How extra money
will prepare Kent's railways for bad weather

Millions of pounds is to be invested
to keep Kent's rail network moving in severe winter weather.

It comes after thousands of passengers
were stranded and trains cancelled in last winter's blizzards.

An announcement today by Transport
Secretary Justine Greening means a cash injection of £16m into
heating the third rail line that supports Southeastern's
trains.

The money is part of a bigger £38m
programme to make sure the rail network is better prepared for bad
weather.

In total, 116,000m of track covering
more than 400 sites across Kent and neighbouring counties will be
heated to prevent ice from forming on the lines.

So far Southeastern has invested £40m
to prepare services for the cold generally, while Network Rail has
spent a similar amount throughout the South East on cold weather
improvement works.

The raft of measures planned, or being
implemented, includes:

• Two new snow and ice treatment trains for Kent services
• Eight new multi-purpose ice vehicles for London and the South East
• Twenty anti-icing tanks to be stored on trains running services throughout the region

Transport Secretary Justine Greening,
pictured above, came to Tonbridge this morning to announce the
investment into the third rail.

She said: "We now
have trains which can coat the rails, de-ice the rails, trains
that can snow plough and some of the trains that do the de-icing
are normal passenger
trains."

Why is heating the third
rail so important?

Rail services in kent are particularly
susceptible to disruptions caused by freezing temperatures, because
they are mostly run by third rail electricity.

That means the trains draw their power
from a rail, rather than an overhead cable.

So if a layer of ice forms on top of
that it prevents the power from reaching the train.

Work has already started on the
Southeastern service's third rail, and is 85% complete. It should
be fully operational by the new year.

The Minister was met by managers from
Southeastern and Network Rail at Tonbridge rail depot. She then
watched snow- and ice-reducing vehicles at work clearing the rail
tracks. Platform snow ploughs were also in action.

But John Stanley, MP for Tonbridge and
Malling, is not convinced the announcement goes far enough: "We're
going to have more heated rails but it's not going to provide a
Scandinavian-type structure - so we don't have an infallible system
against severe winter."

Later a cross-Government research
study will also be published, which has examined further options
for strengthening winter resilience.

It's estimated that winter travel
disruption from previous years has cost businesses and individuals
around £280m nationally a day.

• Passengers to be given glowsticks in snowstorms