Plans for improvements to Putney Station to cope with ever increasing passenger numbers have been unveiled by Network Rail.

Work is due to begin next month that will see a raft of changes, including a potential new entrance on Oxford Road, enabling commuters to flow through the station more easily.

The existing entrance on Putney High Street will be remodelled to create more space and better passenger facilities Platforms have already been lengthened while the pavement at the front of the station is due to be widened to relieve the cramped pedestrian area.

Part of the taxi rank, which will operate from 7pm to 7am, will move from the centre of the high street to a safer location at the kerbside in Upper Richmond Road.

Lifts are to be installed inside the main station to provide disabled access to the platforms.

Wandsworth Council has also commissioned a feasibility study, to be completed this spring, looking at a new entrance to the station from Oxford Road, which would lie to the east of the station.

This could reduce the volume of people using the existing entrance and make it easier people to interchange with the Distinct Line at East Putney Station.

Councillor Russell King, the borough's Transport spokesman, said: "Putney Station suffers from severe overcrowding and these improvements can't come soon enough for local commuters.

"In the meantime we have started to tackle some of the issues immediately outside the existing station entrance where overcrowding is a problem at peak times.

"Unnecessary street clutter and guardrails are being removed so that people are no longer hemmed in as they try and make their way through."