AN INAUGURAL awareness day has been used by a railway service provider to announced a £90m investment, programme.

October 15 was the UK’s first National Stations Day and South Western Railway (SWR) chose the day to confirm plans to invest £90m to enhance station facilities across its network.

Planned works include new ticket barriers at over a dozen stations, installing new benches, improving wi-fi coverage, refurbishing and creating waiting rooms and toilets, and making more station facilities such as toilets and lifts available to customers when stations are not staffed.

Another proposed upgrade is enhancements to platform customer information screens displaying real time information from new trains about where vacant seats are available and where facilities can be found on the train.

Andy Mellors, SWR’s managing director, said: “Our customers sit at the heart of everything that we do, and we are committed to improving their experience of travelling with us. As part of this we are investing £90 million to improve station facilities across our network.

“South Western Railway’s station improvement programme has already delivered accessibility and customer information improvements at many stations.”