by political editor Paul Francis

Rail chiefs have unveiled winter contingency plans aimed at sparing passengers a repeat of the misery caused by extensive disruptions last year.

And providing stranded passengers on broken down trains with glow sticks is part of them.

Network Rail and Southeastern say their emergency plans will help ensure services are not as badly disrupted and if they are, passengers will have more reliable information about what is happening.

There was widespread anger among rail commuters last winter after the prolonged spell of bad weather.

Now rail chiefs, who briefed MPs on the plans recently, insist they are better prepared.

The winter contingency plans include:

• Conductor rail heating along a further 40,000 metres of line

• Eight anti-icing trains compared to six last year

• 20 passenger trains to be fitted with 450-litre anti-icing tanks for the first time

• Three new 4x4 cars to help engineers reach broken down trains

• 100 more grit bins at stations and 230 hand-pushed ploughs to clear platforms and concourses of snow

• 4,000 foil blankets and glow sticks to be stored on trains in the event they break down and passengers are stranded

Southeastern has also vowed to improve communication for travellers. One of the biggest causes of complaints last year was that timetable information was often wrong or out-of-date during the bad weather, with cancelled trains often listed as running normally.

The operator says IT systems have been improved to ensure up-to-date information is available.

Problems caused by frozen rails could be eased with trains fitted with de-icing tanks. These will be used during the day where there are forecasts of low temperatures overnight to limit the extent to which lines are iced up.

A spokesman for Southeastern said glow sticks would be useful in the event trains lost power and there was no lighting.

Charles Horton, managing director for Southeastern, said: "Whilst there is always likely to be disruption during severe winter weather we believe the work we have been doing jointly with Network Rail should enable us to keep more services operating, help us recover more quickly from disruption and support our efforts to improve the quality of information that we provide to passengers."

Mike Smith, Network Rail’s route enhancements manager for Kent, said: "We understand the importance of providing passengers with a reliable and punctual train service.

"We continue to work hard to deliver over £40m of improvements in time for next winter, which we hope will add much-needed resilience to the network and allow passengers to make their journeys over the winter months with minimal disruption."

Maidstone and Weald MP Helen Grant, who hosted the briefing, said: "It seems Network Rail and Southeastern have worked hard to try and avoid a repetition of the shambles we all endured last winter.

"There are now more trains preparing the tracks for frost, many more metres of rail heating as well as communication upgrades.

"Whilst I welcome this important investment in infrastructure, Southeastern still has a long way to go to win back the confidence of their customers. This is a good start however."