Clapham Junction will get one of the biggest shares of a £50 million ‘Better Stations’ makeover fund launched by Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis today.

Lord Adonis toured Clapham Junction at 6.30 am at the start of a whistle-stop tour of ten stations singled out for upgrades in a report on ‘Better Rail Stations’ published today.

Battersea MP Martin Linton and South-west Trains chief Andy Pitt gave Lord Adonis a shopping list of the most urgently-needed station improvements.

High up the list were new station entrances, longer platform canopies, better waiting rooms, more ticket offices and escalators to the overbridge.

Manchester Victoria heads the list of stations most in need of improvement, followed by Clapham Junction, Crewe, Warrington, Barking and Luton.

Clapham Junction, along with Manchester and Crewe, are expected to take the lion’s share of the £50 million fund for urgent improvements over the next few years.

Martin has been pressing ministers to fast-track vital improvements for Clapham Junction since developers withdrew their offer to fund new station entrances along with their 42-storey towers in May.

Earlier this week Martin met senior officials at the Office of Rail Regulation – the Government watchdog that controls rail investment – together with campaigners from the Clapham Junction Action Group and local councillor Tony Belton.

They presented their vision of an improved station and urged the regulators to give the Clapham Junction upgrade high priority for in the next funding round.

"For the last ten years the Government’s investment priority has been longer platforms and better rolling stock to ease overcrowding, but now we need switch the focus onto stations.

"The Government is already installing lifts and building a tube station at Clapham Junction, but it’s still a very overcrowded, old-fashioned station that is in urgent need of better facilities for travellers.

"The new entrance opening soon at the top of St John’s Hill will give direct access to the lifts and this will be a huge bonus for the public as well as for people with wheelchairs, buggies, bikes or heavy luggage. But my top priority is to give access to the lifts from the Grant Road side of the station as well.

"Together with the Clapham Junction Action Group I will also press for a bigger main entrance with more ticketing facilities and with escalators from the concourse to the overbridge to relieve overcrowding in the tunnel.

"We’ve expanded the capacity of Clapham Junction from four-carriage to eight- and ten- and eventually to twelve-carriage trains, and we need more entrances and facilities and escalators to ease congestion and to make travelling a more pleasant experience.

"I know that all the people who objected to the 42-storey towers were still keen to get the station improvements and I’m delighted that the Government has come forward with some funds to pay for the most urgently needed improvements.

"There’s no reason why we should have to pay for urgently-needed station improvements by agreeing to giant tower blocks which would be totally out of place and I’m glad we didn’t agree to the scheme.

"In the longer run we will need even more investment to turn Clapham Junction into a first-class station. It is already Britain’s busiest station with 40 million passengers going through the station every year, but it has the entrance and facilities of a small town station."