THE Mayor of Farnham, John Ward, officially opened Farnham station’s new single-storey car park last week. It has created more than 170 additional spaces, adding to the 355 already available.

The new deck which covers the existing car park, also has the added bonus of improved security with upgraded CCTV cameras, new Help Points, segregated walkways and upgraded lighting.

It comes after a two-year campaign to secure the extra parking spaces needed by the high volume of Farnham commuters using the station on a daily basis.

Mr Ward said: “It’s fantastic. I and most other people have wanted this for a long, long time because it used to get so full.

“I think it’s a wonderful thing and I am really glad to see it, I have wanted it for a number of years.

“The whole town will appreciate it, as well as the commuters. It will hopefully reduce the amount of commuters parking way up Waverley Lane and around there, which is a very good thing.

“I haven’t found anyone to complain yet, which is always a good sign and there was really very little disruption, so it has gone off very well.

“I’m really interested in the bright blue flooring upstairs, that got my attention straightaway. If that doesn’t wake commuters up in the morning nothing will.

“A lot of effort has been put in by everyone – it’s a real win win situation. Thank you to everyone involved, really appreciated.”

According to Alistair Wright, head of station property for South West Trains, improving the car parking capacity at Farnham station has been a key priority for his team at South West Trains for a while, and that it is just one of eight stations to benefit from a £50 million car park investment programme.

Surrey county councillor Pat Frost, who first initiated the improvements in 2007, is overwhelmed with the outcome:

“It’s really quite good, you look and you see what they’ve done and there are places where you can walk, instead of in the other car park where you took your life in your hands.

“One of the things which is good, is that the foundations are sufficient that if they want to put another deck on they can. I think the colour scheme is quite fun.”

In 2015 South West Trains announced that it would be investing £50 million in customer improvements across the network as part of an agreement with the Department for Transport.

This significant investment will result in around 1,400 extra car parking spaces introduced across eight key stations.