BASINGSTOKE commuters are to miss out on cheap train fares because the town is not earmarked as a destination for a new budget service.

Trains running on the megatrain.com pilot, which will run on South West Trains between London and Portsmouth and Southampton, are not to call at Basingstoke despite the fact that the station is on the main line between the capital and the south coast.

This means that passengers from the town will not be able to travel for as little as £1 when the pilot begins on November 14.

Lisa Davies, deputy head of media and public affairs at South West Trains, said: "The services will not be stopping between their destinations - that is just the way it goes with most budget services. They are supposed to be fast.

"We are not sure about what may happen in the future. It depends how this pilot goes, but we may well look at other destinations if it catches the public's imagination. I can neither rule out nor guarantee Basingstoke eventually being part of the megatrain.com network.

"There are still plenty of cheap tickets for passengers from Basingstoke, despite the fact that the town is not part of this pilot scheme."

The project, which will see tickets costing between £1 and £10 sold over the internet, is being run by the Stagecoach Group, which owns South West Trains. It follows in the footsteps of the company's low-cost bus service, megabus.com, which has carried more than three million people since its launch in 2003.

More than 3,000 tickets will be available each week at www.megatrain.com and can be booked already, though the offer will not stand on Sundays.

Passengers will be seated in designated areas of South West Trains services and tickets will not be sold at stations.

First published: Monday, November 7, 2005