Dozens of passengers' daily commute with a difference

Around 100 passengers in Kent have been given a surprise upgrade on their journey to work with a trip on a luxury train.

Dozens of passengers turned up at Ashford International station expecting to catch their usual Southeastern train to London.

They spotted the vintage Belmond British Pullman train on platform six shortly after 7am - and were invited on board for an ultra-first class experience.

Travel firm Belmond said it laid on the service to remind people "just how wonderful train travel can be".

After taking their seats in the spacious carriages, some of which date back to the 1920s, the passengers were served a three-course breakfast and entertained by a vocal harmony group.

The train, the sister of the Venice Simplon-Orient Express, is normally used to whisk leisure travellers away on trips to historic cities, major sporting fixtures and special events, such as afternoon tea hosted by TV's Mary Berry. But Belmond chartered it to treat commuters on a 90-minute journey passing through Charing, Maidstone, Otford and Swanley to London Victoria.

There was a lively atmosphere on board as passengers made the most of the experience, with conditions vastly different from those on many regular rush-hour services.

Latest Department for Transport figures show that 30% of travellers were forced to stand because there were not enough seats on trains in and out of Victoria during the morning rush-hour on a typical autumn weekday last year - up from 25% in 2011.

Passengers on Southern services have suffered months of disruption caused by strikes over changes to the role of conductors and high levels of staff sickness.

The travellers who took the special train from Ashford International were a combination of people recruited on the day and those who had registered for a surprise journey after seeing a social media campaign run by Belmond.

See all the pictures and interviews in this report by Tom Savvides