PRINCESS ANNE gave a newly redoubled railway line from Kemble to Swindon her royal seal of approval on Friday.

Her Royal Highness officially opened the new line between Swindon and Kemble, which project managers Network Rail say will give greater capacity , reduce journey times and create a better experience for passengers in the future.

The princess, who regularly commutes on the line, arrived at the station at 9am and headed to its garden where she met with officials and children from Kemble Primary School.

Students from the Royal Agricultural University have recently given the garden a makeover with the help of Kemble Primary School pupils who created a sundial for it which was unveiled last month.

The princess, who was dressed in an elegant red coat, glamorous box pleated skirt and leather boots, chatted to the youngsters about the project and praised them for their hard work.

Pupil Jodie Savage, 10, said: “It was fun to meet her. She asked me what did you have to do on the sundial. She was very nice to speak to.”

After mingling with the youngsters, representatives from Network Rail and officials, including Stroud MP Neil, Princess Anne gave a speech where she explained how happy she was that the line up and running and that the work was completed in such a short period of time.

She said: “It has been a complex amount of work in a short amount of time.

“It is very nice to be here and see it all working. ”

The redoubling of the railway line is the second out of 13 major projects by Network rail which are being funded by a17 billion investment from the Government.

Patrick Hallgate, managing director of Network Rail's Western route said that the Her Royal Highness told him at the event that she appreciated the difficulties of doing a major upgrade project and the difficulties of keep people on trains whilst this was being done.

He said: “She has a great understanding of the difficulties that people, undertake and making sure we offer a good service. At the moment we are in the middle of completing major engineering operations.”

He said that thanks to the redoubling, trains would be able to divert through Kemble when works starts on the electrification of the South Wales railway line and when new trains are introduced by Network Rail.

“It will help when the new fleets of trains start to be available at the back end of 2016.”

There are plans to increase the services on the newly redoubled line in 2018.