Horse-shoe seats have been introduced by a bus company in an attempt to get passengers to speak to each other.

It is also hoped that the pilot scheme will stop people from putting their bags on the spare seat next to them to deter strangers from sitting there.

Go South Coast, which runs services across the south of England, have installed the U-shaped seats on 13 of their buses in Wiltshire and Dorset.

The new design seats eight people on the back of single decker buses.

If the idea proves popular it could see the concept used all over the country.

Andrew Wickham, managing director of Go South Coast, said: "People have this idea of passengers sitting on the bus on their smartphones protecting the spare seat next to them.

"This idea is about trying to get away from that.

"We're not claiming we're going to undo the smartphone revolution but if we can get people to look up from them and chat that can only be a good thing.