East Coast trains, one of the only operators in the UK to have a mobile site, now sees 17 per cent of its visitors using handheld devices to access the site.

This has increased 310 per cent increase since mobile ticketing was added in October last year, the company said. The site also includes arrival and departure boards for all mainland UK services, live travel disruption information and a journey planner.

The train operator has just appointed a new agency, Beattie McGuinness Bungay, to lead its £7m advertising effort, which will include more mobile marketing to drive users to the site.

East Coast, which serves areas like Stevenage and Peterborough, is already running mobile PPC to target users searching for East Coast train tickets, as well as people using their mobile devices to browse and research tickets. The ad copy highlights booking in advance for cheaper tickets and no booking fees on the East Coast website. They have also run an email campaign to highlight the mobile retail site to business customers and other relevant segments.

The government is currently running a review into the train operator, which is publicly-owned, with a view to re-privatising it.