Southeastern is taking advantage of new technology by using a new digital tracking system to identify and return lost property to its owners

Using a digital system makes it easier for customers to report and track their lost items, resulting in a 78% increase in items being returned to their owners in three months.

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To improve the handling of lost property, last April Southeastern introduced a digital tagging system to help provide a better service for its customers who use the company to travel across Kent, East Sussex, and London.

Southeastern operates more than 1,700 train services every day, from which 20,000 items of lost property are recovered each year.

Bags and coats are the most common items found, but among the more unusual items left behind are trumpets, accordions, a guitar, and a prosthetic leg.

With the new digital system, when items are found on a train or at a station, they are tagged with a unique QR code and logged into a database. Staff can then access the database to see if lost property reported by customers has been recorded.

The previous lost property system used an outdated paper logging system. The new digital system speeds up the process to track lost items and reduces the time for an item to be reunited with its owner.

The new digital system came into operation in early April, since when 4,166 items have been logged on the lost property database including:

• 377 phones
• 729 coats and jackets
• 110 pairs of sunglasses
• 1,091 bags

The more unusual items found have included one trumpet, three tents, three skateboards, two hearing aids and two accordions.

Before the digital system was introduced, 12 percent of lost property was reunited with their owners. That number has increased to 21 percent in the three months since the digital system was introduced, and continues to grow.

All lost property found on Southeastern trains or stations is stored at a sorting centre at Cannon Street station. It is kept there for three months, and if it remains unclaimed, it is donated to a charity or recycled.

London North Eastern Railway also has a digital tracking system where owners can search online for their lost items, whilst the Transport for London Lost Property Office processes more than 200,000 items left on London Transport vehicles and premises each year,

We all know how frustrating it can be when you lose something, and we want to make it as easy as possible to track down items left on trains or at stations.

The new system was introduced following feedback from our customers, and I’m pleased we are already seeing more items being reunited with their owners. It also makes it easier for customers to report and track lost items.

One of our main commitments is to provide a better service for the half a million customers who travel with Southeastern every year, and this is an example of how we re doing that.

Station Manager Aaron Cox, who is Southeastern s lead for lost property,