Rail operator, South Western Railway, is to trial a new digital service on board a selected services in early 2023.

The initiative came around after an idea was submitted by an SWR employee at an internal innovation event, Track’a’thon.

In the trial, passengers will be able to scan QR codes located around a train, and with a simple scan, they will be able to access real-time journey information.

The technology has been developed by Whoosh and works by using a dynamic QR code programmed to the areas that they located in.

The trial will be available on a number of services on routes including London Waterloo to Weymouth; London Waterloo to Portsmouth Harbour via both Eastleigh and Guildford; London Waterloo to Alton and London Waterloo to Exeter St Davids.

Peter Williams, Customer and Commercial Director for South Western Railway, said: “We are excited to be collaborating with Whoosh on this trial as we work to learn more from our customers about the information and digital services that matter most during their journeys.”

“We are particularly eager to see how this technology can help streamline the way in which customers communicate with us via real-time reporting and the insight it gives our teams to act quickly upon the information provided.”

Edmund Caldecott, founder and CEO, Whoosh, said: “We are proud to see our trial with South Western Railway get underway and are especially interested to see how the ‘Tell Us’ module improves SWR’s knowledge of real time faults as and when they occur.

“Solving customer issues is at the heart of our work here at Whoosh, and to bring travel technology solutions to customers across new networks is incredibly exciting.

“Whoosh can provide seamless real time information to customers to improve their journey experience at a fraction of the cost to the operator, and we are excited to see this benefit customers across the SWR network.”