A £1.5 million investment into Southeastern services has been announced and some stations and depots across Kent will be receiving a cut for new upgrades.

Modernised waiting rooms, seating, benches and car park lighting are all set to be rolled out across a number of stations.

A £330,000 investment in CCTV will be installed at train depots and sidings to improve the security of the network and deter vandals from damaging the railway.

Work began last week and will be completed in April.

At 34 station car parks, new motion-sensor LED lighting will be installed to improve security and save energy.

The upgrade will see lighting levels reduced to 20% when no-one is in the vicinity – reducing the carbon footprint of the station.

Southeastern will also invest £120,000 at Gillingham, Gravesend and Herne Bay, where the station waiting rooms will be completely revamped.

The modernisation will include new seating, heating and lighting, passenger information systems, charging points as well as improved security with additional CCTV.

The new interior decoration will include wood-effect laminate flooring – Southeastern believes that this will create a "warmer and more welcoming environment".

The Grade II-listed Margate and Ramsgate stations will have more than £160,000 spent on "decluttering" the main atrium areas.

All redundant furniture, fixtures and cables will be removed.

The Margate and Ramsgate stations will also get a small makeover with plans to repaint ceilings and entrance doors, and clean and polish the original parquet flooring – this is all part of a longer-term project to enhance and preserve the heritage features of these buildings.

The booking hall at Canterbury East will be refurbished and at Higham, the installation of an Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system will be added to the recently upgraded car park.

Planting will be introduced at Folkestone West car park to improve the environment outside the station.

In addition, a new-style meeting room 'hub' concept is set to be trialled at a number of stations across the network with design work starting shortly.

David Wornham from Southeastern, said: “Our number one priority is to win back our customers and reverse the shift from public transport to cars that occurred during the pandemic.

“Passengers will benefit from this investment going to the places where it is needed the most to make station environments across our network more comfortable, and more attractive, and reduce our own carbon footprint.”