RAIL services in Hampshire will share in a £50m funding boost that will create thousands of new seats.

The Department for Transport and Stagecoach Group have announced the extra funding for South West Trains which will see smart ticketing introduced across the network.

More than 57,000 new seats will be created on 73 new evening and weekend services will be created on suburban and mainline routes and by creating new seats on existing trains.

Among the new services will be a new early morning train from Southampton to London, which will leave Southampton Central at 5.20am on week days.

Journey times are also set to be cut by ten minutes between Poole, Bournemouth, Southampton and London on Sunday afternoons, while 1,600 new seats will be created on the route on Sundays.

And 1,400 car parking spaces are set to be created at eight of the busiest car parks, with Andover set to be the first to see changes.

A new online booking system is set to be introduced that will allow South West Trains customers to use a smart card on London's Oyster card system.

Commuters using the Portsmouth direct line to London will be among the first to be offered the new smart tickets as part of a pilot.

And 170 new ticket machines will be installed, 90 of which will have a new video link facility.

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.”

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.”