A fifth of Virgin Trains customers have switched to mobile-friendly digital tickets after their launch on the west coast route last summer.

More than 1.5 million digital tickets have been sold in the last three months alone, as customers respond positively to their simplicity and ease of use.

Unlike traditional paper magstripe tickets, which have been an industry standard for 30 years, digital tickets can be easily downloaded to smartphone devices or printed at home and then scanned at automated ticket barriers.

Between March and May, 18% of Virgin’s ticket sales were for digital tickets, a dramatic increase on a year earlier when this represented only one in 20 sales.

Their rapid take-up is a positive boost to Government and industry ambitions to roll out digital ticketing across the rail network and has been praised by independent passenger watchdog Transport Focus.

Virgin Trains’ east coast business is aiming to emulate this success as part of a comprehensive digital refresh strategy being rolled out this year. Last week it launched mTickets which can be downloaded straight to mobile devices.