A Weybridge insurance company’s plans for a £5bn revamp to Waterloo station may have “come to the table too late” according to Surrey County Council’s transport cabinet member.

Environmental Transport Association (ETA), based in the High Street, wants Waterloo to become just another stop on the line to allow trains to zoom through to London Bridge and beyond, linking north Surrey to east London.

The so-called Southern Crossrail proposal is designed to “avoid the jam caused by trains having to enter a terminus station and reversing out”, according to Councillor Andrew Davis, who owns ETA.

Southern Crossrail, a proposal that would see part of Waterloo become a through station rather than a terminus, which, according to the company, “will avoid the jam caused by trains having to enter a terminus station and reversing out.”

Plans include re-opening the original track that connected Waterloo directly to Waterloo East, along with three parallel tracks that will connect to London Bridge, allowing commuters to “rapidly” pass through the station to Bromley, Dartford and Sevenoaks.

The company predicts the overhaul would allow up to 120 trains an hour to pass through Waterloo, an increase in capacity that “would have a transformative effect on the transport south of London.”

John Furey, cabinet member for highways, transport and flooding at Surrey County Council weighed in on the proposal.

He said: “It would be an immense positive for commuters from Surrey into London, the link between Waterloo and London Bridge is well overdue. It will be interesting to see if they can build the capital to do it.

“When Crossrail 2 comes into Surrey that may alter the whole dynamic of travel.

“I think this is a commercial entity. They’ve possibly come to the table too late, it may not make a lot of difference.

“Currently we’re working to make sure Crossrail comes to Woking and Epsom stations.”

Cllr Davis said that if his scheme was approved stations along the Southampton line, including Esher, Walton and Weybridge, would see a doubling in train departures from four per hour to eight.

He said: “I mentioned it to Ken Livingstone when he was Mayor of London, so we’ve been discussing it for 15 years, but by putting a video together and discussing the main things we can put the idea out there to more people.

“The benefits are enormous and the cost is very little relative to other infrastructure. Considering Crossrail 2 would cost at least £22bn you can see that it’s much cheaper.

“The frequency would be much higher, how high that goes depends on how far we go. There could be 30 trains an hour coming from Clapham Junction to Waterloo.

“The capacity would be higher and people coming home wouldn’t be so crowded.”

Cllr Davis said if the idea was taken to the table, construction could take about two years to complete. According to ETA, the “minimum engineering requirement would be for the entire concourse at Waterloo to rise up over four through tracks” along with lifts and escalators.

Cllr Davis said: “I like to think this isn’t very contentious, we can’t see any objections from south west London but we can see some people from south-east London would say it needs more improvements.”

A Network Rail spokesman said: “Network Rail has already committed to investing over £800m in upgrading Waterloo to significantly boost capacity for passengers by 30 per cent during the busiest times of day.

“The proposal to link the South Western and South Eastern railways does not fit with the rail industry’s current strategy for London Waterloo.

“It is not something that Network Rail is actively pursuing.

“It is far from clear that any possible benefits would justify the significant expense and disruption that such a scheme would give rise to.”