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A train operator said introducing a digital tracking system to its lost property department has increased the number of returns from 12% to 21% in three months.

Staff at Southeastern, which runs services between London and the Kent and Sussex coasts, tag each item handed in with a QR code and place it on a database.

The company said this made retrieving the items much faster when passengers came forward to claim them.

Southeastern said it received about 20,000 lost property items each year, with a prosthetic leg, a guitar, a trumpet and an accordion among the more unusual.

Launched in April to replace a paper system, the digital system has so far reunited 377 phones, 729 coats and jackets, 110 pairs of sunglasses and 1,091 bags with their owners.

Also returned were a trumpet, three tents, three skateboards, two accordions and two hearing aids.

Southeastern's lost property department is based at London's Cannon Street station.

Station manager Aaron Cox, who is also Southeastern's lead for lost property, said: “The new system was introduced following feedback from our customers, and I’m pleased we are already seeing more items being reunited with their owners.

"It also makes it easier for customers to report and track lost items."

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