Perhaps a little late, like Britain's trains, but you can now book your railway tickets online for the first time to anywhere on the UK mainland.

Virgin's Will Whitehorn on online booking

TheTrainLine Website has been developed by Virgin, but promises no favouritism towards its own services and includes the timetables of all UK operators.

The Net strategy does link to Virgin's plans for its own trains though - from 2001 you should be able to book online your next rail journey at an Internet terminal while already travelling in your seat in one of its new millennium trains.

Surfing the rails

The newly unveiled designs of the trains' interiors reveal digital displays in carriages delivering news and weather as well as the name of the next station. There will be an interactive entertainment system for each seat which should include Net access and online shopping.

The announcements come, not insignificantly, on the day train companies are expecting a dressing down for their poor performance from the government at a rail summit.

Virgin says TheTrainLine is more up-to-date than the current Railtrack online timetable while offering the booking feature.

There are no surcharges on credit card bookings and tickets are posted or can be collected at stations. Virgin will pocket a 9% commission from other operators for selling the tickets.

Price cut hope

The company has invested £35m in the site and a telesales project. Currently 20% of its tickets are sold over the phone.

The Web development is also part of a £50m strategy to get nearly every part of the Virgin Group online and involved in e-commerce by the end of the year.

Virgin claims TheTrainLine's booking system is the most sophisticated in the world and founder Richard Branson said it could help to drive down ticket prices. Online auctions, such as those currently held for airline tickets, could be a feature in the future.

Rail mystery

The system involves registration and allows you to search for the fastest or cheapest fares and routes. You can choose smoking or non-smoking and even which direction your seat should face. Eurostar cross-channel trains are not yet included.

"At the time of privatisation [of the UK rail network], we were the only operator that put into our franchise bid that we wanted to develop an online Internet booking system and information system accessible to the general public," says Will Whitehorn, the director of Virgin Group.

"That was nearly three years ago now, trying to simplify what the public find a very confusing system is really part of the priority for the long-term future. It's happened over the past few years in the airline business and there's no reason why it can't happen in this business as well."