RAILWAY users are set to benefit from a £2 billion boost to services across the network in Hampshire.

Network Rail has secured a budget of more than £2 billion to provide a ‘safer and more reliable’ service for passengers travelling on the South Western Railway network through Hampshire.

The money will be spent between 2019 and 2024 across the route, which runs out of London’s Waterloo station, and represents more than a 20 per cent increase on the existing five-year budget.

The funding will be focused on renewing and maintaining existing infrastructure to stop it failing, in a bid to give people more reliable train journeys in the future.

Becky Lumlock, route managing director for Network Rail’s Wessex route, said: “We now have more money than ever before to invest in this route and make a real difference to people’s journeys - that’s great news for the people of Hampshire.

“With almost a quarter of billion passenger journeys a year, this part of the railway is under enormous pressure. The next five years are about making sure our tracks, our signals, our bridges and everything in-between, are in first-class condition and can support this growing demand.

“We know we still have much to do to improve train performance on our route and, working with South Western Railway, this funding will help us do that for the communities we serve.”

The work in Hampshire will see Network Rail replace ageing infrastructure and improve the resilience of its power supply.

The aim of this is to give passengers in the county a more reliable, safer train service by reducing the number of times Network Rail infrastructure fails, while avoiding speed restrictions being put in place.

Network Rail will also be improving safety at level crossings and installing digital ready equipment, laying the groundwork for ‘a future digital railway’.

Specific projects in the region include strengthening and refurbishing a bridge in Hook, one of four such projects across the route.

Elsewhere, there will be track renewals at six key junctions including at Farnborough, through which London Waterloo trains from Basingstoke travel.

The Wessex route budget boost has been set out in the Office of Road and Rail’s (ORR) final determination.