A scheme to introduce hourly trains on the Lowestoft to Ipswich line is set to be boosted by funding from Suffolk County Council.A passing loop is set to be built at Beccles by 2012 to allow an hourly service on the line and now Suffolk County Council has pledged �1m towards the work in order to double the number of trains running on the East Suffolk line.

A scheme to introduce hourly trains on the Lowestoft to Ipswich line is set to be boosted by funding from Suffolk County Council.

A passing loop is set to be built at Beccles by 2012 to allow an hourly service on the line and now Suffolk County Council has pledged �1m towards the work in order to double the number of trains running on the East Suffolk line.

At the moment there is only a single length of track between Beccles and Lowestoft, meaning that trains cannot pass each other until they are about 20 miles down the line.

A passing loop - an extra line of track - will allow trains travelling south to pass another travelling to Lowestoft.

The county council is set to set the money aside in its capital programme for 2011/12 so that the Beccles loop can be included in major resignalling work on the whole line.

A spokesman for Network Rail said the exact cost of the work was not known, but it would be installed during the resignalling work on the line.

'This is part of our programme for East Anglia, it is a very important development for the route,' he said.