URGENT calls for action to improve Kent's troubled rail system were spelled out at a conference held to discuss the network's worsening problems. Concerns about finding the investment badly needed to upgrade Kent's ageing rail infrastructure were discussed by rail users and train companies such as Railtrack and Connex South Eastern and rail passengers.

Delegates at the conference in Maidstone said their worries had risen in the wake of the recent collapse of Railtrack. Leading the calls for action was the Wendy Toms, the chairman of the Rail Passengers Committee, a rail watchdog, which organised the meeting to provide a face-to-face meeting between rail users and train companies.

Ms Toms, described Kent's network as the "Cinderella" of the south, desperate for funds to upgrade a Victorian rail system. In its early days, back in the mid 1990s, Railtrack's soaring profits had been ploughed back into the network but now with the company's demise, rail user groups said they feared Government financial support would be slow to come as it struggled to find a future for the railways.

The Rail Passengers Committee (RPC), a national watchdog organisation, which organised the meeting, led calls for Kent rail operator Connex South Eastern to renegotiate its franchise with the Government to receive bigger subsidies from the Treasury in line with those recently agreed by other train companies in the South.

But with 10 years still to go until the end of its present franchise, there were fears that Connex's demands for help would be ignored by the Government.

Connex spokeswoman Deborah Smy said the company was in talks with the Government to discuss future plans but as negotiations were in an early stage, she could not reveal them. Vince Lucas, Railtrack's general manager, was worried about the impact of Transport Secretary Stephen Byers' draft proposal for New Track, a non-profit making alternative to Railtrack.

"We need stability," said Mr Lucas. "We must wait and see what this non profit-making idea is like but if it is experimental by nature, I am a bit nervous."