A train company says its services will run more reliably after crucial infrastructure upgrades and repairs.

First Capital Connect (FCC), which runs trains through the borough on the Hertford Loop line, has announced a joint investment plan with Network Rail.

The route, which passes through Alexandra Park, Hornsey, Harringay and Finsbury Park stations, has been subject to passenger complaints about delays and overcrowding

Network Rail have accelerated their planned 12-month maintenance programme to three months, with upgrades to track, power supplies, signalling and drainage to be completed by the end of July.

Paul Rutter, Network Rail's area director, agreed that the time had come for serious repairs to be carried out on the route, one of the busiest in London.

He said that the company was laying new track so that trains running between Alexandra Palace and Finsbury Park no longer had to use the same track as the East Coast main line, which was causing delays.

Mr Rutter said: “We’re laying new track and replacing signals, and we’ve built new platforms at Finsbury Park to help platform congestion.”

The new platforms join the existing extended platforms, allowing twelve-carriage trains to run more often.

A spokesman for Network Rail added that the aim was to reduce a “bottleneck” between Finsbury Park and Alexandra Palace.

FCC will invest more than £1 million in equipment including testing devices to make sure electrical faults are found and repaired before they cause delays.

FCC Performance Director Richard Rowland said that the operation was about improving the railway, and not about the image of the company, which recently lost its franchise and will be replaced by the new operator, Govia, in September.

He said: “This is important work and it’s about improving the railway for the people who use it every day."