Passengers on some of the country’s most congested rail lines face waiting years longer for crucial upgrades after ministers shelved improvements worth £2 billion.
Hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money could also have been wasted on plans that will never see the light of day.
A tranche of projects was put on hold yesterday after it emerged that a £38.5 billion investment programme overseen by Network Rail has been ravaged by chronic cost overruns and missed targets.
In a sign of the severity of the crisis, Richard Parry-Jones, Network Rail’s chairman for the past three years, was replaced by Sir Peter Hendy, credited with the smooth running of London’s transport during the Olympics.
Patrick McLoughlin, the transport secretary, said that he had ordered