A rail boss has backed the introduction of double-decker trains from Basingstoke to help ease the pressure on the network.

South West Trains commercial director Sam McCarthy said urgent investment was required to cope with a 40 per cent increase in train users in the next 30 years.

Mrs McCarthy admitted that the Wessex route operated by South West Trains had suffered from years of underinvestment.

To deal with surging demand, she suggested:

Double-decker trains could be introduced from Basingstoke

Increasing capacity on the Basingstoke to Eastleigh line

Twelve carriage trains and two more services should be introduced

Southampton Central Station needs more platforms

Lines to Southampton should have overhead electrification.

But Mrs McCarthy warned a meeting of Hampshire business and political leaders that they would have to lobby hard to win the funding from the UK’s cash strapped government.

Speaking at a meeting of the county’s business and political leaders she said: “In terms of investment it comes at a bad time for UK PLC, it has not got significant amounts of money.

“And this area has had the lowest amount of investment out of the whole railway for years.”

Mrs McCarthy told the Solent Transport meeting in Portsmouth that if nothing was done soon more and more passengers would be left standing all the way from Hampshire to London.

Currently 70 to 85 per cent of trains going into London are full. But in 30 years time all seats would be taken with 40 per cent of passengers standing.

The latest Passenger Focus survey shows already only 43 per cent of passengers using trains to and from London say there is sufficient room for seating or even standing.

“Those numbers are not great,” Mrs McCarthy admitted. “Our train performance is not where it needs to be. It feels like it is getting worse. That is not a great place to be in. We know people are standing from as far away as Southampton Airport Parkway. That is still a long time to be standing for.

“But the demand is such that there are no other options available.”

Mrs McCarthy called on political and business leaders to back South West Trains in lobbying the Government for a slice of the investment for the Wessex route which runs through Hampshire.

She said: “It is a bit frustrating because historically there has been years of underinvestment that has got us here. And we have to fix it.”

Councillor Cathy Osselton, Cabinet member for partnerships at Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, backed the call, although she would like to test double-decker trains before supporting their introduction.

She added: “I would like to see more money put into transport. I know that Basingstoke MP Maria Miller is lobbying hard for it and I would back her 100 per cent on that.”