COMMUTERS can now access the internet for free on board some of the county’s busiest rail routes.

South West Trains free WiFi service goes live today (Monday) on the main line route from London Waterloo to Weymouth and Portsmouth.

The lack of on-train WiFi was raised by Winchester and Chandler’s Ford MP Steve Brine in November last year at the Ask South West Trains public meeting.

He said he thinks the service will be “transformative” for thousands of people.

Hampshire Chronicle:

Steve Brine MP at Winchester train station

“One real benefit of taking the train over driving has to be the opportunity it affords to get some serious work done and that has been near impossible for most of us, until now,” he said.

“The new WiFi service, which I have tested as part of a trial in the past week, works really well.

“I think South West Trains got rather fed up with me always banging on about this subject whenever I saw them but they’ve come good, made it happen and deserve huge credit for that. We hope this will get positive feedback from passengers and subsequently be rolled out across all trains, from all stations, on their local network.”

The free service will be available on the Class 444 ‘Desiro’ electric trains.

Arthur Pretorius, customer services director for the South West Trains-Network Rail Alliance, said: “Whether it’s working, catching up with the latest news or keeping in touch with friends, free WiFI on many of our main line trains will help our passengers to make more use of the time they spend on board our services.

“We are constantly working to improve the service we offer and are investing millions of pounds in our stations, trains and infrastructure to provide improved journeys.

“This latest investment will provide significant benefits to our customers and we’re confident will make a big difference to their journey with us.” The train operator has partnered with Nomad Digital to install the WiFi.