PASSENGERS on high speed trains between Worcester and London will now be able to travel on newly upgraded carriages with hi-tech facilities.

All 405 carriages on the First Great Western's high speed fleet are being modernised with more airline-style seating and power supplies for laptop computers.

The first refurbished carriages are coming into service and will start appearing on the Cotswold Line but it will be the end of the year before the entire fleet is operating.

The move will create extra seating to reduce the number of passengers standing on all or part of their journeys.

However, Brian Clayton, secretary of the Cotswold Line Promotion Group, says the new seating arrangement with fewer tables will not be as comfortable as the old one.

"It will never be as comfortable as the old arrangement, but there is a requirement to seat more passengers and the new arrangement does mean that about 75 more passengers per train can be seated.

"The interiors are much brighter with a new lighting system. Power points for plugging in laptop computers and mobile phone chargers have now been installed, but only one per pair of seats in standard class.

"Most of the tables have been removed from standard class so that families or groups travelling together will have to scramble for the few remaining."

The space available to first class passengers remains the same and they will also have the luxury of leather covered seats.