Virgin Trains

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Virgin Trains is a train operating company, part of Richard Branson's Virgin empire. The company was formed after the privatisation of British Rail in the mid 1990s.

Virgin were successful in the bids for 2 franchises, the first being to run express train services on the West Coast Main Line (WCML). This part of the company is called Virgin West Coast (VWC) and provides services to London Euston to the West Midlands, the North West and Scotland. The other franchise Virgin obtained was the separate franchise to run most of the UK's cross country rail services (which generally means long distance services not operating to or from London), which tend to run South-West to North-East and South to North-West via Birmingham. This part is called Virgin Cross-Country (VXC).

Mixed Fortunes

A Virgin West Coast class 87 electric locomotive & Mark 3 coaches.

On privitisation, VWC inherited a mixture of mk2 and mk3 coaches, with electric locomotives of classes 86, 87 and 90. VXC inherited several High Speed Trains, and mk2 coaches which were hauled by class 47 locomotives and class 86 locomotives under wires.

Virgin Trains have a poor reputation for punctuality compared with many other transport operators. This perception seems to be a mixture of truth and media exaggeration. During the year ending December 31 2002, 62.5% of Cross-Country trains and 73.6% of West Coast trains arrived within 10 minutes of the scheduled arrival time (source SRA National Rail Trends). These figures compare unfavourably with historic InterCity train punctuality, but are not greatly worse than other contemporary long-distance UK rail operators. The problems have been widely attributed to the ageing and increasingly unreliable rolling stock and the equally ageing and outdated infrastructure on which it runs.

The Future

The remedy to these problems has been a slow, painful and expensive one. Virgin, in 1997 placed the largest (�1bn)rolling stock order in British history with new "Pendolino" tilting trains for the WCML network. These state-of-the-art units are a throwback to BR's unsuccessful APT tilting train of the '70s, but this time with the various design gremlins with the tilting system ironed out. The Pendolino trains have a speed capability of 200kph (125mph), and will slash journey times on the WCML. The cross-country routes have been served by new diesel 4-Carriage "Voyager" trains and 5-Carriage "Super Voyager" trains. Only "Super Voyager" trains have tilting ability and will be used for services operation on the WCML.

This means by September 2004, Virgin Trains will have replaced most of the rolling stock inherited from British Rail with brand new state of the art trains.

The WCML itself has been the subject of a massive �10bn refurbishment programme to accept the new trains, one that has been the subject of massive controversy, since it is now running 3 years late, and has cost twice the original estimate. (see West Coast Main Line page for full details).

Given Richard Branson's popularity with the British public and the success of his other business ventures, the perceived failure of Virgin Trains is unusual.

In 2003, Virgin Trains introduced some set-down only or pick-up only stops into its passenger timetable, although this is not a new innovation having previously been used by British Rail. The company stated that these are enforcible by means of fines; for example, a passenger leaving the train at a pick-up only stop is deemed not to have a valid ticket, and could be charged accordingly.

fr:Virgin Trains