With plans from the Government to increase the number of houses built in order to meet demand could lead to issues in other aspects on infrastructure including transport. Network Rail has announced The Kent Area Route Study, a plan that will cover 30 years and intends to cater for the growth in passengers in the Kent area.

Network Rail has released these plans to ensure that the railway will be able to deal with the huge growth of passengers in the south east of London and Kent as well as being able to accommodate the increase in freight. The number of passengers using the railway between London and Kent is set to rise by 47% by 2044. There is also a predicted 127% increase of passengers using high speed rail services in and out of St Pancras International. Due to this massive expected increase, Network Rail has been working with their partners in the industry in order to create a draft of a strategy in order to keep people moving on the rail over the next 30 years.

Housing and jobs have continued to grow in this region. And connections in to the capital are vital for many commuters. Routes from Cannon Street, St Pancras International and Charing Cross are currently classed as completely full at their peak times. However, if the trend of housing and jobs increase as expected the rail systems will not be able to cope with the increase in potential passengers. 

In order to deal with the more immediate growth, Network Rail can deal with the extra passengers by making the trains longer to allow more capacity. Lengthening the trains to 12 carriages will deal with immediate issues, however more technical solutions are needed to deal with the increased capacity. These solutions include expanding the central London stations to accommodate more people. The most notable station set for expansion is Charing Cross.