FUTURE commuter rail services in Kent could stop at fewer stations but have more carriages for passengers to ease over-crowding, according to rail bosses.

Olivier Brousse, managing director of Connex South East, said he expected a major re-organisation of rail services in the county – due to happen when a new franchise for rail services is offered to operators in 2007 - provided a “unique opportunity” to develop services.

“If I had a wish, it would be to reduce the number of stops and to increase the amount of car-parking we have at those [major] stations. One of the biggest problems we have is that we do not have enough car-parking capacity. It is all well and good to have trains but if people cannot park, they will not use them,” he told a meeting of Kent County Council’s Conservative-run cabinet.

He was commenting about the likely impact on rail services of Government plans for tens of thousands of new homes in Kent over the next two decades.

Mr Brousse warned the house-building plans presented both risks and opportunities. He identified the chief risk as the fact the existing rail network was operating “at capacity” and there was a “desperate shortage of money".

He stressed: "Running more trains will provide more seats but will put more risk on to other services, which may be less reliable. Providing more trains will always be a challenge and come at a cost.”

However, the prospect of a new franchise in 2006 and plans by the Strategic Rail Authority to re-organise the timetable for all services in the county presented “a unique opportunity"”

He added: “The Kent franchise will be a major opportunity. The private sector has virtually stopped investment in railways [but] a 10-to-12 year franchise will provide funding to lengthen platforms and provide extra capacity without extra trains."

Whoever won the contract would be able to “stop reacting” and instead anticipate demand, meaning services would eventually improve, he added.

Under a deal agreed by the Government last year, Connex's franchise will expire in 2006, rather than the previously agreed 2011. The government then wants to combine the South Eastern network with local trains running on the Channel Tunnel rail link, which opens in 2007.