PLANS to upgrade the East Coast Main Line face fresh doubts after a trains chief admitted that rail improvement schemes may be dropped.

Richard Bowker, chairman of the Strategic Rail Authority, has indicated that some long-promised improvements are to be abandoned, unless the industry can better its performance and cut costs.

The authority has already suggested new track, modern signalling and longer platforms be dropped from the Government's ten-year transport plan.

Now Mr Bowker has warned that a revised strategic plan - to be published next month - will identify which projects in that plan will be under threat.

Major developments on the East Coast Main Line, one of the country's busiest networks, were already in doubt before yesterday's announcement.

Alan Hyde, corporate affairs manager at GNER, said in the long-term the line did need upgrading.

But he added that in the short-term, some measures could be taken to improve capacity on the line at certain times of day.

Updated: 11:41 Wednesday, December 04, 2002