Trainline shares soared on Tuesday after the group revealed a £50million share buyback following better-than-anticipated growth in the first half.

The digital railcard platform’s net ticket sales increased by 23 per cent to £2.65billion for the six months ending August, while turnover rose by nearly a fifth to £197million.

Ticket purchases jumped to over £1.7billion in the firm’s UK consumer division as more customers booked online and on the day of travel.

Travelling far: Trainline announced a £50million share buyback programme on Thursday

It further benefited from passenger volumes regularly nearing pre-pandemic levels amid an absence of Covid-related restrictions and commuters travelling with greater frequency to the office.

This was despite workers from the RMT and Aslef unions staging strikes on multiple days as part of a long-running dispute over pay and conditions, costing the group around £5million to £6million in lost sales per day.

Outside Britain, ticket demand soared by approximately a quarter to £559million on the back of solid performances in Spain and Italy.

In recent years, trading in Italy has been supported by new advertising campaigns, while the company’s expansion in Spain has been spearheaded by the liberalisation of the country’s high-speed rail system.

Digital sales slowed overseas partly due to higher competition in keyword auctions, although demand continued to rise significantly on the company’s mobile app.

Jody Ford, chief executive of Trainline, said: ‘Given our continued growth and the strength and maturity of our business, we are today launching a share buyback programme to begin returning capital to shareholders.’

Trainline has maintained its guidance for both net ticket sales and turnover to expand by 13 to 22 per cent for the 2024 financial year. 

Meanwhile, adjusted core earnings are expected to total between 2.15 per cent and 2.25 per cent of net ticket sales.

Following the update, Trainline shares jumped 12.4 per cent, or 30.6p, to £2.78 on Thursday morning, making them the biggest riser by far on the FTSE 250 Index.

However, their value has still fallen by about 24 per cent over the past year.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: ‘There remain limited barriers to entry in this market, but Trainline’s brand is becoming increasingly entrenched, which should provide it with a measure of protection from any prospective rivals.

‘The company continues to focus on innovative features like flagging cost savings through splitting your journey into multiple tickets that cost less in total than one ticket for the whole route.’

A huge crowd lined the street in Costa Rica to accompany the coffin of football player Jesus Lopez Ortiz who was savaged by a crocodile while taking a dip in the river to cool off.

Crowds can be seen clapping and cheering, with some carrying instruments and white balloons, as a silver van holding the fallen athlete slowly edges forward during the nighttime procession in Guanacaste Province.

The mourners then followed the vehicle to an event where loved ones held up his trophies and portraits as they comforted one another.

‘Today we said goodbye to you “Chucho”; today, around a thousand people accompany you representing all your friends, family, and the entire country that was with you,’ Deportivo Rio Cañas, the football team for which he played, said in a Facebook post. 

Lopez Ortiz, whose nickname was ‘Chucho’, died aged 29 after he was mercilessly killed by the reptile on July 29 in a river in Río Cañas in Guanacaste.

Crowds can be seen clapping and cheering, with some carrying instruments and white balloons, as a silver van holding the fallen athlete slowly edges forward during the nighttime procession in Guanacaste Province

Father-of-two Jesus Alberto Lopez Ortiz, 29, was mauled to death while taking a dip in a river in the village he lived in 

At the funeral ceremony last week, Chucho’s mother gave thanks for all the emotional and financial support she has received since her son passed way.

‘There are no words, I know God will bless them… if it hadn’t been for them, I don’t know what I would have done,’ Giselle Ortiz Cubillo said.

Horrific images of the footballer’s death show the father-of-two fighting for life as he is carried away by the animal in its jaws.

Another clip shows the croc being shot dead in the water and carried to the riverbank, with local residents saying that they followed it in a canoe to recover Chucho’s body.

The footballer leaves behind his young children, who are aged three and eight.

Horrifying photos captured the killer croc carrying the footballer in its mouth as it swam

Local residents tracked the animal down and killed it so they could recover the footballer’s body

Costa Rican footballer Chucho (pictured) tragically leaves behind two young kids, aged eight and three

Deportivo Rio Cañas, the football team for which he played, posted on Facebook on the day of the funeral 

His team said in a social media post last week: ‘We will remember you in the many facets of your sporting life as a coach, football player and also as a family father. You will always live in our hearts Chucho, fly high friend.’

Costa Rica’s Ministry of Environment and Energy prohibits the hunting or killing of protected animals such as crocodiles.

It is not currently known if the department is looking into the locals’ decision to kill the crocodile so locals could collect the body.

Local police said in a statement: ‘It should be clarified that all efforts were made to rescue the body of the deceased person without causing damage to the reptile, which was not possible.’ 

Women seeking a relationship have revealed which messages a prospective partner should definitely not send on dating apps.

Researchers led by Purdue University, Indiana, found that among 275 participants — mostly female — starting a conversation with a sexually explicit message was the biggest turn-off, especially for people looking for a long-term relationship.

Conversely, someone whose initial message included a greeting and a question was more likely to get a positive response.

It comes as a separate group of scientists also revealed that tall men would prioritize tall women for relationships, but see short ones as just a fling.

Women seeking a long-term relationship on dating apps find a sexually explicit opening line surprising and a violation, according to new research. The study surveyed 275 undergraduate students at a public university in the Midwest between the ages of 18 and 29 years old

Amanda Lilly, a PhD student who led the research, and others noted in the study: ‘Online daters might choose to reserve sending sexually explicit content until they are sure the recipient would appreciate that kind of communication.’

They added: ‘Online daters who understand when it is and is not appropriate to use sexually explicit messages may be more effective at attaining their goals.’

For the study, published in the journal Personal Relationships, researchers surveyed 275 undergraduate students.

Of these, about 66 percent were women. The majority were also heterosexual — 79 percent — and all were aged between 18 and 29 years old. Some 64 percent were also white.

Each completed an online survey with personal details about themselves and were presented with scenarios where they had received questions from a match on a dating app.

They were also asked whether they were looking for a long-term or casual relationship. 

Participants were told to ‘imagine that you have just received a message from someone that you have been matched with as a potential partner on the online dating app/site of your choice’.

Then some were told that the first message they received was a greeting including a question mark and asked to imagine how they responded.

The others were told they had received a message that was ‘sexually explicit’ in nature as the first contact.

Scientists did not detail what the explicit message may be, saying that they did not want to cause offense or upset to the participants. Instead, they gave them a description of the message.

Results showed that participants were more likely to respond favorably to the greeting and question mark than the sexually explicit message. This held true even if they were looking for casual flings rather than a long-term relationship.

Ultimately, they found that even men and women looking for casual hook-ups did not especially appreciate it when someone came out too strong right out of the gate. All groups preferred a traditional greeting best. 

Although a sexy opening pick-up line ‘is becoming a common tactic utilized by some when trying to start a romantic relationship,’ the scientists wrote, ‘the current study indicates that these types of messages tend to violate recipients’ expectations in a relationship.’