Rail travellers are being given the chance to go on-line - in every sense of the word.

Passengers will be able to surf the world wide web as old technology meets new on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway as part of National Adult Learners' Week.

Ten laptop computers, linked to the Internet, will be set up in a period railway carriage pulled by steam along the five-mile line between Keighley and Oxenhope.

And passengers will be invited to go on-line and learn all about railways around the world.

They will also be able to visit a website dedicated to the K&WVR, famous as the location for the classic movie, The Railway Children.

Matt Strah, the railway's press officer, said: "We thought it was a great idea for people to experience the paradox of going on-line, on line.

"And there's also the contrast of using the hi-tech laptops while riding on the technology of the past.

"People can also access our own website and see how it compares with the real thing. While sitting in a station, they can see the image on screen and look out of the window and see how it compares."

He said KWVR members were enthusiastic about the event, especially the element of bringing new technology to the old.

Martyn Spence, of Keighley College, said access to the Internet would be free of charge to everyone taking advantage of the five trips between 11.05am and 6.15pm on Saturday, May 27.

"Passengers will be able to explore the railways of Africa and other continents while experiencing the sights, sounds and smells of one of Britain's best preserved steam railways," he said.

"We are trying to demonstrate that information technology-based learning is a major element of training and education."

He said the exercise, organised in partnership with Bradford & Bingley Building Society, would also show how distance learning on the web is a major part of everyday life.

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