Two of Britain's fastest trains have been given a makeover with face mask artwork to remind passengers to stay safe.

It was unveiled at Southeastern's Ashford depot and coincides with the governments new guidance about wearing face coverings while in confined spaces.

The railway company is preparing for more customers with more services across the country - including gyms, leisure centres and swimming pools - set to open this weekend.

Managing director David Statham said: “Last month the government announced that face coverings would be required to be worn on public transport to ensure a safe travelling environment, and now we’ll see them introduced in more settings including shops.

"We wanted to create an eye catching way to reinforce the importance of wearing face coverings whilst travelling with us because they not only protect the public, but keep our rail colleagues safe too.

"It’s certainly a new experience for us all to get used to, so we hope the new artwork puts a smile on the faces of our passengers, under their masks of course."

Southeastern also has a number of measures in place to combat the coronavirus, including increase cleaning, social distancing rules, extra sanitisation points, one-way systems at stations and encouraging passengers to purchase tickets before travelling.

Mr Statham added: “As more people start returning to the network, we want to reassure our passengers that we’re taking extra steps to provide a safe and clean environment, including enhanced cleaning regimes and constantly monitoring our operations to ensure we’re providing sufficient space and comfort onboard.

“We recommend that in addition to wearing face coverings and carrying hand sanitiser that passengers plan ahead, travel at quieter times and register for one of our contactless tickets by visiting the Southeastern website."

Passengers travelling into London and the South East are being encouraged to look out for the new trains, which will be running on the network from Saturday.

Read more: All the latest news from Ashford