More carriages to London at weekends, faster journey times and an extra earlier weekday London train from Southampton are being promised by South West Trains as part of a £50m investment.

The money will also see the introduction of smart ticketing machines in stations, alongside new services being established across the network.

Trains travelling from Poole to London after 2.55pm on Sundays will run ten minutes faster, with a further 1,600 seats will be created on services from 3.55pm.

Trains from Waterloo to Poole also faster from 4.05pm until end of service, with more seats on those from 5.05pm.

The 9.20am and 10.20am from Weymouth to Waterloo on Saturdays will run extra seats, as will the return 6.35pm and 7.05pm Waterloo to Weymouth services.

There will also be an extra weekday train from Southampton to London Waterloo leaving at 5.20am, and an extra weekday Waterloo-Bournemouth train, leaving at 7am. 

The re-development comes as part of an amendment to the current franchise agreement between Stagecoach Group and the Department for Transport.

Stagecoach has operated the South West Trains franchise since 1996, ‘doubling the number of passengers using its services and driving forward a number of innovations to help customers’.

The train company currently operates around 1,600 trains a day on a network in the South and South West of England, serving more than 200 stations and employing around 4,500 people.

Chief Executive of the South West Trains-Network Rail Alliance, Tim Shoveller said: “These exciting changes will deliver the biggest package of customer focused benefits for years. As well as the expansion of our smart ticketing scheme we are also introducing more staff to our concourses so that they are able to help passengers, face to face.

“We’re also creating hundreds of new parking spaces across the network and introducing more than 57,000 additional seats and 73 new services on suburban and mainline routes across the network.”

The new benefits follow a number of improvements already underway, including major infrastructure development at London Waterloo to accommodate new trains.

Rail Minister Claire Perry said: “As we spend record amounts on modernising our railways as part of our long term economic plan, our franchising programme is also unlocking considerable investment from train operators.

“This package of improvements from South West Trains, with its strong focus on customer service, is very welcome and will make a huge difference to passengers on the many busy routes served by this franchise.”

The work to the service is expected to be start between now and February 2017.