Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon has visited Ebbsfleet International Station to consider plans for the direct Crossrail link from North Kent to Heathrow.

Dartford MP Howard Stoate invited Mr Hoon to visit Ebbsfleet and look again at the viability of extending the Crossrail service.

It was hoped North Kent stations would be included in the original plans, but concerns over finance and planning saw the plan crushed

Mr Hoon said today: "Howard Stoate, who’s here with me, the local Member of Parliament, has pressed me hard in Parliament to agree to an immediate extension through Ebbsfleet and I can certainly see the practical advantages of that.

"There are, however, some technical difficulties in relation to the flow of trains through the existing arrangements for Crossrail.

"But what we have done is to preserve the line, we've made that possibility available for the future and it’s something I’m sure that Howard Stoate will continue to urge upon me."

He also says it is not a funding issue: “It is all about how we flow trains for the plans that we have for Crossrail.”

Work on the line is expected to begin next year, with first trains due to begin running by 2017.