South West Trains has started this week to use Twitter to communicate with passengers, with the launch of a new service offering up-to-date travel information.

Passengers can now follow the rail operator via @SW_Trains to receive information about their South West Trains’ service.

South West Trains has decided to launch the service due to the mobile-friendly nature of the Twitter interface, which means passengers can get regular updates on the status of the service while on the move.

Adam Piddington, Customer Information Manager for South West Trains, said: “We know how important it is to provide timely,accurate and good quality information to the thousands of passengers who use our services every day, particularly during times of disruption.  By following us on Twitter, passengers will be able to receive alerts sent directly to them when problems occur - at no cost whatsoever. Cutting through industry jargon, the simple, clear, personal messages give passengers just what they want, and help us to speed up the communication of our messages.”

The scheme is part of a wider strategy to improve passenger communication. Last month, South West Trains announced the deployment of BlackBerrys to 850 employees to ensure that its front line staff have access to accurate and up-to-date information.

South West Trains is also developing other channels of communication to offer passengers a mobile version of the website, www.southwesttrains.co.uk, which will be launched soon.

South West Trains operates one of the busiest commuter rail networks in Europe, running around 1,700 trains a day in and out of London Waterloo. It was the most punctual large commuter network operator in 2010-11 and 90% of passengers were satisfied with the punctuality/reliability of services its services in the last National Passenger Survey. In 2010-11,it was one of only three train operators to achieve a year on year increase in punctuality.  South West Trains was recently named ‘Passenger Operator of the Year’ at the 2011 National Rail Awards.

City.Mobi

Also in Europe today, City.Mobi is celebrating the success of its new guide to London.

City.Mobi offers the most comprehensive mobile travel guides available, with over 800 cities in 200 countries listed. Each is developed by the City.Mobi team to combine into a single global travel directory.

However, each city retains its own mobile identity via a dedicated domain. Already on offer are Brussels.Mobi, Paris.Mobi, Sanfrancisco.Mobi and Sydney.Mobi.

London.mobi is the latest in this illustrious line up, offering click to call functionality – which means no scribbling down telephone numbers.

Most entries are also linked to websites where users can quickly access more detailed information if needed.

Other key features include information on accommodation, restaurants, attractions, entertainment, nightlife, shopping, and transport.

City.Mobi guides include user reviews and traveller utilities such as a translation guide, currency converter, news and local weather guide.