Commuters using the Dorchester to London Waterloo line and splitting their time between home and the office could make use of a new Flexi Season ticket.

It will replace South Western Railway's (SWR) Carnet tickets and enable customers to travel on any eight days in a 28-day period. Customers will have unlimited travel between the same two stations on their chosen days, with it being valid across the SWR network and beyond.

Flexi Seasons will be entirely contactless, meaning customers will need to have an SWR smartcard before purchasing the new product through the SWR app, website or a ticket office. To activate one of their eight day passes, customers are required to place their smartcard on a gate or smartcard validator, allowing them to travel between their chosen stations.

SWR customers can check a new season ticket calculator to confirm which type of ticket is best for them.

The tickets are available to buy now and use next week.

SWR is also taking part in the new 'Book with confidence' initiative, which allows advance ticket bookings to be changed to a different time or date for free, until December 31, 2021.

Peter Williams, SWR's commercial director, said: "This product will offer the flexibility and value for money that so many of our customers need in the aftermath of a pandemic, which has fundamentally altered working patterns.

"We are also pleased to be part of the 'Book with confidence' initiative, which enables our customers to change the date and time of advance tickets for free. We have all got used to plans changing quickly and unexpectedly, and we want to do all we can to ensure that our customers don't lose out when they do."

As well as the new Flexi Season ticket, customers on the Dorchester to London Waterloo train service may also see guards wearing body worn cameras as SWR trials them.

The use of camera is hoped to reduce anti-social behaviour on SWR's trains and at its stations, as well as act as a deterrent to assaults, threats and abuse experienced by SWR colleagues.

The trail could see body worn camera for all guards rolled out across the SWR network and will determine the impact of body worn cameras by comparing the quality of footage to existing CCTV available, as well as whether the footage caught provides better quality evidence for prosecutions and cases in court.

Alan Penlington, SWR's customer experience director, said: "While our trains and stations are already equipped with CCTV, we are always looking for ways to help our customers travel with confidence and ensure that colleagues feel safer at work.

"These body worn cameras are designed to do just this, by deterring anti-social behaviour on our services and reducing the number of assaults our colleagues experience at work.

"While we wish that we could prevent every incident, we expect that the new footage will help authorities in any prosecutions by providing good quality evidence."

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