THOUSANDS of Basingstoke commuters are set to benefit from more seats and faster train times to London after the Government handed the rail franchise to a different operator.

The Department for Transport said this week the South Western Railway franchise will change hands, from Stagecoach to FirstGroup and Hong Kong company MTR, from August.

It is predicted journey times from Basingstoke to Waterloo will be cut by about five minutes, seen as a massive boost to both passengers and businesses in the town.

The move will also lead to the addition of 750 new train carriages that will be added to Windsor, Reading and London suburban routes by 2020.

This also includes plans to introduce 400 extra trains on Sundays across the whole network, and in the same time period, there will be 52,000 more peak seats added to trains at London Waterloo.

Secretary of state for transport, Chris Grayling, said: “This is great news for rail passengers. FirstGroup and MTR will deliver the improvements that people tell us they want right across the South Western franchise area, from Southampton and Portsmouth, to Bristol and Exeter, to Reading, Windsor and London.

“We are delivering the biggest rail modernisation programme for over a century and this franchise will deliver real changes for passengers.”

Journey times will be cut because trains will spend less time waiting at signals, with ‘dwell time’ at platforms also set to be reduced.

When The Gazette asked if this meant that passengers would have less time to get on, a spokesperson for FirstGroup said that while the amount of time that was spent on the platform would be reduced, the amount of time for embarkation would not decrease.

Basingstoke MP Maria Miller said: “The residents of Basingstoke want faster trains, more seats, and better prices. I’m calling an urgent franchise meeting in order to make sure that the views of Basingstoke residents are heard and understood by the new franchise.”

Stagecoach, the current operator, said it was “disappointed” its bid for the franchise had failed.

The firm’s chief executive Martin Griffiths, said: “We are proud to have operated the network under the South West Trains brand for more than 20 years and we are disappointed that we have been unsuccessful in our bid.”