RAIL passengers will find themselves in unchartered waters from Sunday when FirstGroup and MTR take over the franchise for operating the South Western Railway.

• Having recovered from the shock ousting of South West Trains (SWT) by the Department of Transport (DoT) in March, despite the operator’s 20-year record of providing a “stable service” on the Alton to Waterloo line, commuter group ALUA (Alton Line Users Association) has voiced guarded optimism over the future of the service.

Its chairman David Jones said of the new franchise holders: “So far they have kept us informed with what they’re going to be doing and they’re organising

regular meetings with line users.”

However, the change of franchisee comes at a difficult time. The biggest rail modernisation programme since the Victorian era is taking place to upgrade the network and improve capacity at Waterloo Station, there is an ongoing battle with the unions over driver-only trains and travellers face the biggest rise in regulated rail fares for five years, with an expected increase of up to 3.6 per cent in January.

The uncertainty could result in a rocky start for FirstGroup, which will run the network for seven years, in partnership with MTR, a Chinese company that runs the Hong Kong Metro service. MTR will hold a 30 per cent share of the new operator.

But the two companies have an upbeat view of the prospects for the line.

First-Group has issued a statement confirming that the change of operator means more than £1.2bn will be invested in the network by 2024. The money will be spent on trains, station improvements, ticketing simplification and changes to “make journeys better for customers”.

Passengers travelling from Alton and Farnham are expected to benefit from:

• Faster journey times on services from Alton into London

• Later direct services to Alton and a later last train, connecting via Woking, planned for the December 2018 timetable

• New half-hourly Guildford-to-Farnham services, calling at Wanborough, Ash and Aldershot

• Additional peak services to and from Guildford, with later fast trains.

On Tuesday an early-morning passenger train was derailed as it was leaving Waterloo after it struck a stationary barrier train at low speed.

Passengers were advised not to travel on Tuesday, but by Wednesday services had partially resumed.

The incident was, however, an example of the disruption experienced by passengers as a result of Network Rail’s £800m

investment programme, which has required the temporary closure and rebuilding of some platforms at Waterloo throughout August, reducing network capacity over the holiday period.

Thanking customers for their patience, FirstGroup said: “We will be working closely with the (upgrade) programme team when we take over the franchise on August 20.

“The upgrade will enable us to operate more capacity, which is much needed on the SW franchise network.

“As the programme of work continues towards the Bank Holiday weekend, we urge customers to ensure that they check before they travel, be flexible about services they travel on, and prepare for potential queues at stations.”

It is feared that the new franchise could try to introduce driver-only trains. Such a move would be fiercely opposed by unions and staff at Southern Rail.

In an interview for the BBC last Thursday newly appointed franchise boss Andy Mellors confirmed that its fleet of new trains would “retain a second person” on board, but he declined to identify exaclty what that person’s role would be.

FirstGroup and MTR were, he said, “committed to recruiting additional staff” in order to fulfill their pledge to run more trains in and out of Waterloo by December 2020.

However, he added, it was “far too early to say exactly how we will be operating those trains. As new trains, they can be operated in a variety of ways”.

Mr Jones added: “The last thing we want is any problems like they’ve had on Southern. That would be quite horrendous, given the numbers of people that use this line.”

He further pointed out that Treloar School and College is on the Alton line so takes a lot of disabled passengers in wheelchairs, who need assistance getting on and off trains. And while there may be help from outside, stations such as Bentley do not have platform staff.

“Also, the security of the passenger goes out of the window, especially late at night. How does the driver know what’s going on in the fourth carriage and, yes, they’ve got CCTV but will it capture everything?

“We (ALUA) feel that the mere presence of a guard acts as a deterrent and that, especially when travelling late at night, people feel a little more confident if there’s a guard on the train.”

Robert Saunders, East Hampshire District councillor for Alton Amery and transport spokesman, said: “I do hope that First Group have learned some lessons from the Southern debacle and approach any negotiations with the workforce in this safety-critical industry in a more positive and constructive frame of mind.”