Virgin Trains
Virgin Trains is a train operating company in the United Kingdom, which currently provides services from London Euston to the West Midlands, North West England, North Wales and Scotland, and from Birmingham New Street to North West England and Scotland, on the West Coast Main Line. Although it is branded as part of the Virgin Group, the group's share in the company is only 51%, with the remaining 49% held by Stagecoach Group.
Between 1997 and 2007 the company included Virgin CrossCountry, which provided services linking the south east and south-west of England with the north of England and Scotland via Birmingham. The majority of these services were transferred in 2007 to the new CrossCountry franchise owned by Arriva.
Virgin Trains was formed to take advantage of the privatisation of British Rail in the mid 1990s, and was initially successful in winning two: InterCity West Coast and InterCity Cross Country. The two franchises, although separate companies (in common ownership) both legally and operationally, were marketed as a single brand.
Services
Virgin Trains run nine trains per hour in and out of London’s Euston station. This is noticeably busier than both East Coast (train operating company) in and out of Kings Cross (four trains per hour), and East Midlands Trains, (five per hour) in and out of St Pancras.
This timetable was introduced on 14 December 2008 as a result of the West Coast Main Line (WCML) route modernisation works. The Monday — Friday timetable's general service pattern is shown below. Other calls/timings occur, mainly during peak times. There are also "non/limited stop" trains running to justify the claimed fastest journey times (on adverts for example).
Cross Country
Prior to 11 November 2007, Virgin Trains ran the CrossCountry franchise, which operated long-distance services from the south and south-west of England, via the Midlands to the north of England and Scotland. These services have now been transferred to a new franchise, CrossCountry, which was awarded to the Arriva Group, along with some former Central Trains services. However, the former Virgin Cross Country services between Manchester and Scotland were transferred to First TransPennine Express & CrossCountry services between Birmingham and Glasgow have been transferred to Virgin West Coast.
History
On privatisation, Virgin West Coast inherited a mixture of Mark 2 and Mark 3 coaches, with electric locomotives of Classes 86, 87 and 90. Virgin Cross-Country also inherited several Class 43 High Speed Trains, and Mark 2 coaches which were hauled by Class 47 diesel locomotives and Class 86 locomotives on electrified routes.
A drive led by Chris Green as chief executive was made to improve reliability and punctuality after much press criticism in 2001, and by 2006, due to improved reliability of trains and completion of major infrastructure projects, performance was better. Virgin have undertaken a number of project to increase punctuality, including radio controlled watches.
New Trains, Tracks and Timetable
Virgin, in 1997 placed the largest rolling stock order (£1bn) in British history with new Class 390 Pendolino tilting trains for the West Coast Main Line network. These state-of-the-art units are based on technology developed by state corporation British Rail for their prototype APT tilting train of the early 1980s; the technology was subsequently licensed to the Italian manufacturers. The Pendolino trains have a nominal top speed of 140 mph (230 km/h), but are limited to 125 mph (200 km/h) on the West Coast Main Line; there have been proposals for 135 mph (217 km/h) running on certain sections of the West Coast Main Line, namely the remodelled Trent Valley area but these are yet to be considered by Network Rail. The cross-country routes were served by new diesel-electric four-carriage Class 220 Voyager and five-carriage Class 221 SuperVoyager trains. The SuperVoyager trains have tilting ability like the Pendolino and were used for services operating on the West Coast Main Line, and the Cherwell Valley line.
By December 2004 Virgin Trains had replaced all of the rolling stock inherited from British Rail. Although the new trains offer many features not available on the older stock they also operate at higher densities, with some seats having reduced leg-room and fewer seats overall, meaning passengers often having to stand, sometimes for hundreds of miles. The cramped conditions are attributable to the inward leaning walls of the carriages that facilitate tilting. The trains were intended to work at much higher frequencies than under British Rail, and so each train has fewer seats than the ones it replaced. However the extremities of the network did not get a higher frequency, and key trains remain busy.
The West Coast Main Line itself has been the subject of a massive £9bn refurbishment programme to accept the new trains, one that has been the subject of massive controversy, since it was running three years late, has cost twice the original estimate, and has been cut back so that the Pendolinos' 140 mph potential speed is not fully used, with trains running at a maximum 125 mph due to signalling constraints. (see West Coast Main Line page for full details).
In May 2003, Virgin Trains introduced some new set-down only or pick-up only stops into its passenger timetable. The intention of the restricted stops is to stop short-distance passengers from overcrowding the long-distance trains.
Additionally, some destinations, including Blackpool, Poole, Portsmouth, London Paddington and Swansea, were removed from the Virgin Trains network altogether, and some services pass through important junction stations, such as Didcot Parkway without stopping. As well as this, Milton Keynes Central is now sparsely served by peak time West Coast services in order to deter commuters from using Virgin's services as an additional link to Euston.
By Spring 2009, WiFi internet connections (from T-Mobile) were available on all of Virgin Trains Pendolino and most Super Voyager trains. The service is complimentary for First Class passengers and a number of package options are open to all standard class passengers.
As of Spring 2010, Virgin Trains have disabled the on-board entertainment facilities on their services. Each seat originally had radio channels available through an in-seat control similar to In-Flight Entertainment, however this has been disabled from their services.
Future
Projected growth in passenger numbers on the West Coast routes has prompted discussions about increasing the length of Pendolino sets to 11 vehicles. The likelihood of 10 car formations was foreseen in the original WCML strategy, so minimal infrastructure improvements would be required. The DFT is now going to order two extra coaches for 31 of the 52 sets to start with. These will be supplemented by four 11 car trainsets that were ordered in 2008. This will be completed by 2012 just before the franchise change in March 2012.
Following the completion of the Trent Valley Line quadrupling and Rugby junction upgrades to allow 125 mph running (completed by 2008), West Coast journey times are expected to fall further; Glasgow-Euston 4hr 15mins, Euston-Birmingham 1hr 10 mins (fastest) or 1hr 20mins (off-peak). Virgin claim that 135 mph running may be possible in places, although Network Rail remain sceptical — stating that significant signalling upgrades would be required.
After much planning, an open-access operator, Wrexham & Shropshire submitted a plan to operate services between London and North Wales. This involves utilising a stretch of the WCML. Virgin Trains unsuccessfully objected to this proposal, which sees Wrexham & Shropshire having trains call at Wolverhampton. Due to the moderation of competition protection that is part of Virgin's West Coast franchise agreement, Wrexham & Shropshire had to submit a modified proposal that will involve only limited use of Wolverhampton, with Tame Bridge Parkway railway station used as its main Midlands stop. Wrexham & Shropshire began their operations on 28 April 2008. In February 2008, Virgin announced that they would also begin services between London and Wrexham via Chester. Initially on a trial basis with one train per day on weekdays in each direction, should the service prove successful Virgin plan to introduce more services during the week and at weekends.
Richard Branson has launched a campaign to have the next franchise period extended for 20 to 30 years, so that Virgin would be able to spend more on infrastructure and be able to see a return on investment. He stated that the journey time between London and Birmingham could be reduced by 22 minutes to under 1 hour.
Also Virgin & Stagecoach have expressed an interest in taking over the East Coast Main Line franchise in 2010 when the franchise is re tendered.
Rollingstock
The majority of Virgin's services along the WCML are operated by its fleet of 52 nine-car Class 390 Pendolino EMUs. 16 Class 57 diesel locomotives were operated by Virgin, although 4 of these are now operated by Arriva Trains Wales, leaving Virgin Trains with 12. These locomotives are primarily used for "Thunderbird" duties. Virgin also operates 21 five-car Class 221 Super Voyager DMUs; these primarily operate on the WCML north of Birmingham, and on the North Wales line. In addition the 1846 Standard Class Only Euston to Preston service on Fridays is operated by a Class 90 locomotive and DVT on hire from EWS, with a rake of MK3 coaches which are refurbished to Pendolino and Super Voyager standard.
Virgin Trains have now signed a lease on a rake of dedicated mark 3 coaches, with two DVTs. This set, nicknamed the 'Pretendolino' by enthusiasts, has been refurbished to the same standard as the Pendolinos and Super Voyagers. Re-upholstered seating, power points, wifi and a full external re-paint has been implemented. Virgin intend to use this set on the 1846 Euston to Preston service on Fridays and also to hire the train out as charter train, whilst also acting as a spare for any breakdown of a Pendolino or Super Voyager.
The Pendolino fleet is allocated to the Alstom Traincare Centre at Longsight (Manchester), with lighter maintenance and overnight stabling also carried out at Wembley (London), Oxley (Wolverhampton), Edge Hill (Liverpool) and Polmadie (Glasgow). Longsight is also 'home' to the Class 57 'Thunderbird' fleet. Thunderbird locomotives are stationed at strategic points along the WCML such as Crewe and Preston.
The Class 221 Super Voyager fleet is allocated to Bombardier's Central Rivers depot near Barton under Needwood, to the south of Burton upon Trent.