CUSTOMER loyalty has been rewarded by First Great Western to celebrate the train company reaching the milestone of more than 20 million passenger journeys in the last year.

The firm has been handing out free tickets through prize draws at its stations.

The Chippenham winners were Cate Clear and Reginald Hazel, who received their tickets from station manager Roger Bell.

They were handed a golden envelope containing First Great Western First Class return tickets for travel anywhere on the First Great Western network, a night's bed and breakfast for two at a Marriott hotel plus a £100 voucher to spend on the hotel's leisure or spa facilities.

Mr Hazel, who was travelling to Bath Spa, said it was a lovely surprise.

He said: "We have been travelling with First Great Western for a number of years now and have always found the staff to be friendly and services have certainly improved lately."

Edith Rodgers, customer services director at First Great Western, said: "We wanted to say thank you to all our loyal customers for enabling us to reach this milestone.

"It is great to see people are getting onto our trains in increasing numbers."