MILK from a farm near Gifford is to be served on Virgin Trains.

Yester Farm is one of four farms and dairies who will be supplying the train company across the country.

In a deal struck with Enterprise Foods, the fresh milk will be supplied from dairies as close as seven miles from the West Coast Mainline and will be delivered to the nearest Virgin Trains depot for distribution along the route.

Simon McCreery, managing director of Yester Farm, was looking forward to the new business partnership.

He said: “Partnering with a large organisation like Virgin Trains to deliver regional produce to customers is really exciting.

“We know that supplying on such a scale whilst remaining environmentally friendly is difficult and it’s testament to Virgin Trains’ ethos that they’ve made this move to support local farmers.” Over the course of a year, more than 300,000 litres of fresh milk (528,000 pints) will be used across the 300 Virgin Trains services that run each day, to be enjoyed by passengers in their teas and coffee.

The fresh milk is sourced from dairies that run closely along the West Coast Mainline, such as Yester Farm, a family-run farm which strives to keep food miles low by completing the entire production process on site, from milking through to pasteurisation.

Yester Farm also prides itself on giving the cows the freedom to graze on lush pasture in summer, as well as having specially designed sheds to house them in the winter.

Amanda Smit, head of catering at Virgin Trains, said: “Virgin Trains is a company that prides itself on going the extra mile to make its customers happy and this also extends to the people we do business with.

“We’ve been buying local produce for some time now and the benefits we see to businesses and passengers alike is always positive – Thistly Cross Tilting Cider is a another great example, brewed in [Dunbar] especially for Virgin Trains. “By buying fresh local milk we know we can support local farmers in their business whilst also providing quality produce for passengers on our trains who want to relax with a cup of tea whilst we whisk them to their destination.”