Birmingham commuters will be offered free wireless internet on trains in a battle to win business customers.

Chiltern Railways will go head to head with Virgin for passengers between Birmingham and London when in cuts journey times between the cities to just 90 minutes in September.

In a bid to entice business from its rivals, it is set to become the first rail operator in the UK to offer free internet access.

Chiltern marketing director Thomas Ableman said: “We believe that the business community in Birmingham deserves good value, fast travel into London and we want to make travelling with us the only option that makes business sense.”

Chiltern will launch faster services from September 5, cutting its quickest journey times between Birmingham Moor Street and London Marylebone from one hour and 59 minutes to 90 minutes.

The operator has invested more than £250 million in upgrading the route to allow trains to run faster.