A brand new Wimbledon loop train will be showcased to the public for the first time next week.

One of the 115 state-of-the-art high capacity trains set to pass through on the Wimbledon loop will be unveiled at the ExCel exhibition centre in London on Wednesday, January 29, and passengers are invited to take a look.

People will be able to climb aboard a mock-up of the new Thameslink passenger train that will run on the current Thameslink route - Bedford to Brighton and Wimbledon loop - and new routes that will become part of a wider Thameslink network in 2018.

These include the Great Northern routes to Cambridge and Peterborough, the route to Sevenoaks via Elephant & Castle and other destinations off the Brighton main line, significantly increasing capacity.

The first new trains will enter passenger service in early 2016 with the remaining fleet following at an increasing rate until there is one new train on the network every week, according to a Thameslink spokesperson.

First Capital Connect managing director David Statham said: "Our services are some of the most crowded in Britain and this new fleet will give us more trains, more carriages and more capacity which our passengers desperately need.

"We want our passengers to see what they will be travelling in and hear how the Thameslink Programme is going to transform their journeys."

The company claims that from 2018 the trains will operate at high frequencies across central London with one arriving every two to three minutes between St Pancras and Blackfriars.

For more information visit www.ThameslinkProgramme.co.uk.