On Monday Transport Minister Paul Maynard MP announced the Department’s intention to award the South Western rail franchise to First MTR South Western Trains Limited.
With 90 new trains we’re going to see more space for passengers on the Reading, Windsor and London routes through Grateley, Andover, Whitchurch and Overton adding 22,000 extra seats into London Waterloo in the morning peak and 30,000 extra seats each out of Waterloo during the evening peak.
That’s roughly 30% more seats in and out of Waterloo and 10 minutes off the journey time to London from Salisbury and around 5 minutes from Basingstoke. Combined with plans to make charging points accessible from every seat and refurbished train interiors, this represents a really good deal for my constituents and shows the Government means business on expanding capacity.