Liberal Democrat Pressure to Boost Economy Benefits South West Hertfordshire

With London Underground's 150th Anniversary coming up next month a whole series of infrastructure improvements are set to benefit South West Hertfordshire. Served by the West Coast Main Line in the north, with commuter services provided by London Overground and London Midland, the constituency is also served by Transport for London's Metropolitan Line in the south.

Already, last September, all of the 50-year old trains on the Metropolitan Line have been replaced by long S8 trains and platforms have been lengthened to accomodate them. Track renewal with modern rails on concrete sleepers all the way from Amersham to Harrow-on-the-Hill, plus point replacements at Watford and Amersham will improve reliability for the Hertfordshire commuter services run by both TfL and Chiltern Railways.

Further down the line in the underground sections a 30% increase in passenger carrying capacity is expected by 2016 thanks to the combination of the longer trains and the new Cityflo 650 train control system that has already proved its worth in Madrid and Shenzhen.

Finally the Croxley Link connecting Watford Junctionto the Metroplitan Line is to go ahead, with Hertfordshire County Council acting as Lead Partner and Project Manager for the scheme.

This long-awaited addition to the local rail network will benefit not just "Metroland" however. With a new station to be built at Vicarage Road, Watford, this will considerably improve public transport access to West Herts Hospital by giving rail connections all the way from Tring to Carpenders Park to people able to use the West Coast Main Line and London Overground services.

These improvements and extensions to the rail network are all part of the economy boosting investment plans of the Coalition Government, within which Liberal Democrats, notably Danny Alexander, Vince Cable and Nick Clegg, have been prominent in their advocacy for investing in the future in new, socially useful infrastructure.