NETWORK Rail is preparing a detailed business plan to complete the long-awaited dualling of the Cotswold Line, it has emerged.

The Government has confirmed that the rail company will carry out the work some time between 2019 and 2024 between Oxford and Worcester.

The move follows intense lobbying between West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin and the Department for Transport.

Transport minister Baroness Kramer has written to Mrs Baldwin confirming that the Government is formally looking at how to fund the project from 2019 onwards.

Mrs Baldwin said: "Earlier in the year I took Baroness Kramer on a tour of the county to see some of the infrastructure challenges that commuters face on a daily basis and she travelled to and from London along the very slow Cotswold Line.

"I wrote to the Department asking for some indication of whether we may see progress on the dualling of the Cotswold Line and I am delighted that civil servants are already working on a business case."

She added: "This dualling will allow Network Rail to add extra, new, services to the line without having to make artificial tweaks to the timetable to deliver quicker services to London.

"I am pleased that the Government is looking to develop critical projects such as this and it is crucial that we develop a long-term economic plan which will help to fund these major infrastructure plans."