Things are moving fast at East Croydon station - apart from all the delayed trains.

It was only last December that the Labour-led council proposed renaming the town centre transport hub "Croydon Central", in an effort to boost the borough's profile as an economic powerhouse of the south-east.

RELATED:

Now council leader Tony Newman has gone one step further, announcing his vision to make the borough a true player on the world stage: a redeveloped station named "Croydon International".

Yesterday East Croydon commuters suffered another day of misery as engineering works, broken-down trains, damaged overhead wires and congestion caused nearly every train travelling through the station to be cancelled or delayed.

At last night's council cabinet meeting, Coun Newman said: "On the day when commuters have seen another day of chaos at East Croydon, the need for urgent changes is upon us.

"So it is fine Network Rail talking to us about [long-term changes], but people want to know what might be happening...to improve services in the short-term.

"In terms of the long-term, clearly with all the growth we're seeing we're going to need to need to see significant infrastructure changes. A new station is an absolute must.

"It's a purely personal view, but left to me it might be called Croydon International and not East Croydon."

While Coun Newman did not elaborate on his global looking grand plan, residents might be waiting a while for direct trips to the continent.

Council opposition leader Tim Pollard said: "I presume it is to make the point that Croydon is the nearest substantial part of London to Gatwick.

"It's purely a marketing exercise - not necessarily a bad thing, but to be honest I would rather focus on the service working efficiently."

A council sub-committee has recommended to "support the building of a new world class station at East Croydon including two new platforms and new accessible pedestrian entrances to the station".

No timeframe for the project has been set.