Everything about Virgin Trains totally explained
Virgin Trains is a
train operating company in the
United Kingdom, which currently provides services from
London Euston to the
North West, West Midlands and Scotland on the
West Coast Main Line. Prior to
11 November 2007, the company also provided services linking the south and south-west of England with the north of England via
Manchester and
Scotland, via
Birmingham. Although it's branded as part of the
Virgin Group, their share in the company is only 51%, with the remaining 49% held by
Stagecoach Group.
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.
Current services
Virgin Trains run at least six trains per hour — weekdays, off peak — in and out of London’s
Euston station. This is noticeably busier than both
National Express East Coast in and out of
Kings Cross, who operate five trains per hour, and
East Midlands Trains, who operate four or five trains per hour in/out of
St Pancras. Details below are as per February 2006.
Until December 2008
Manchester Piccadilly services are half hourly. They consist of the faster services at 35 past the hour (taking just 2 hours 11 minutes) which call just at
Stoke-on-Trent and
Stockport, and the slower departures at 5 past the hour (taking 2 hours 19 minutes) which call at
Watford Junction or
Milton Keynes Central (alternating, every two hours ), then Stoke-on-Trent,
Macclesfield, and Stockport. The morning peak hour service from Manchester, and the late afternoon peak from Euston, is strikingly frequent with trains every ten or twenty minutes. The 0705 ex Piccadilly, with a stop at Stockport only, completes the journey in 2 hours 5 minutes. There is a daily ‘slow’ service at 0938 between Euston and Manchester via
Northampton and
Crewe, taking 3 hours 17 minutes for the complete journey.
West Midlands services are half hourly between Euston and
Birmingham New Street, with trains continuing every hour to
Wolverhampton. Trains leave Euston at 10 and 40 past the hour. The xx.10s call at
Watford Junction,
Coventry,
Birmingham International and terminate at Birmingham New Street. The xx.40 departures call at
Milton Keynes Central instead of Watford, then the same stops to Birmingham New Street and continuing to Wolverhampton, calling at
Sandwell and Dudley. Journey time between Euston and Birmingham New Street is 1 hour 30 minutes.
Liverpool Lime Street services are hourly and leave Euston, generally, at 17 past the hour. They call at
Watford Junction or
Milton Keynes Central (alternating, two hourly at each), then at
Nuneaton,
Stafford,
Crewe, and
Runcorn. Journey time is two hours 30 minutes. There is an additional fast morning train from Lime Street to Euston at 0707. Calling only at Runcorn, this train completes the journey in just 2 hours 9 minutes. There is no equivalent late afternoon return, however.
Preston/
Scotland services run hourly between Euston and
Lancaster, with many trains now continuing to
Carlisle and
Glasgow Central and one per day continuing to
Edinburgh Waverley. Trains leave Euston at 46 minutes past the hour calling at either
Watford Junction or
Milton Keynes Central (two hourly, alternating) and then at
Rugby,
Crewe,
Warrington Bank Quay,
Wigan North Western,
Preston and
Lancaster. North of Lancaster, most trains call at
Oxenholme Lake District,
Penrith and
Carlisle with a number calling at
Motherwell.
Virgin Trains now run nine trains per day, each way, between Euston and
Glasgow Central. The pattern is generally every two hours but there are now some hourly intervals and Virgin Trains intend to ‘fill in the gaps’ in time. The service compares favourably with
NXEC’s rival service from
Kings Cross for both journey time and frequency. Typical journey times are just over five hours, but there are a couple of reduced stop express services - most notably the 1029 out of Euston which calls just at Preston and Carlisle and takes 4 hours 25 minutes. The 0949 out of Glasgow is the southbound equivalent.
Virgin Trains is ‘testing the water’ with a daily Euston to
Edinburgh service. This doesn't compare at all favourably with NXEC’s service from Kings Cross, which is far faster and much more frequent.
North Wales: The line from Crewe to
Holyhead — via
Chester,
Rhyl,
Colwyn Bay,
Llandudno Junction and
Bangor — isn't electrified, so services are mostly in the hands of
Class 221 Super Voyager diesel-electric multiple units. 2 trains a day between Euston and Holyhead are worked by
Pendolinos, which are pulled by a
Class 57 diesel locomotive over the Crewe - Holyhead sector. There are five trains per day in each direction between Euston, Chester and North Wales - four serving Holyhead and one serving
Llandudno.
Since December 2007 Virgin Trains have continued to operate the Birmingham - Scotland via Preston services as a self-contained unit with
Super Voyagers. These used to be part of
Virgin Cross Country but remained with the Virgin West Coast services after the major re-franchising of
November 2007.
Due to the continuing works in widening the
Trent Valley section of the WCML to four tracks, all Pendolino services north of Stafford are being routed via the West Midlands at weekends. This has an adverse effect on journey times - the Euston-Glasgow Central run for instance being pushed way over the 5hrs 30min mark.
Some of these diverted trains go through and call at
Birmingham New Street. A few run via
Aston railway station and
Perry Barr instead without stopping and skip central Birmingham.
From December 2008
From December 2008, as a result of the WCML route modernisation works, Virgin will be introducing a completely new timetable with increased frequencies and speeds on many routes. The draft Monday - Friday timetable's general service pattern is shown below. Other calls/timings will occurs, mainly during peak times. There will also be "non/limited stop" trains running to justify the claimed fastest journey times (on adverts for example).
Most trains are to be run by Pendolinos with exceptions shown below:
Euston-West Midlands There will be 3 trains per hour - an XX:03 calling at
Rugby,
Coventry,
Birmingham International and
Birmingham New Street - an XX:23 calling at
Watford Junction, Coventry, Birmingham International, Birmingham New Street,
Sandwell & Dudley and
Wolverhampton and an XX:43 calling at
Milton Keynes Central, Coventry, Birmingham International and Birmingham New Street.
A handful of Birmingham terminators will be operated by Super Voyagers (to be used for the few West Midlands-North Wales trains).
Euston-Manchester 3 trains per hour - an XX:00 calling at
Stoke-on-Trent,
Macclesfield,
Stockport and
Manchester Piccadilly - an XX:20 calling at Milton Keynes, Stoke, Stockport and Manchester Piccadilly and an XX:40 calling at
Crewe,
Wilmslow, Stockport and Manchester Piccadilly. This plan will have a knock-on effect on local services in the Manchester area, with a reduction in the number of peak-period local trains, a matter which has caused some controversy.
Euston-Liverpool 1 train per hour - XX:07 calling at
Stafford,
Runcorn and
Liverpool Lime Street.
Euston-Preston/Glasgow 1 train per hour - XX:30 calling at
Warrington Bank Quay,
Wigan North Western,
Preston and
Lancaster with most continuing to
Oxenholme Lake District/
Penrith(alternating),
Carlisle and
Glasgow Central. Some will also call at
Motherwell.
A handful of Lancaster terminators will be operated by Super Voyagers (the other half of a single unit split at Crewe, with the other half running towards Chester.
Birmingham-Scotland 1 train per hour XX:20 from Birmingham New Street running alternatively to
Glasgow/
Edinburgh and roughly similar to the current services provided now.
This service will be provided with Super Voyagers only (in single formation).
Euston/West Midlands-Chester/North Wales 1 train per hour XX:10 calling at Milton Keynes, Crewe and
Chester with 7 trains continuing to
Flint,
Prestatyn,
Rhyl,
Colwyn Bay,
Llandudno Junction,
Bangor (2 terminating here) and
Holyhead, and another terminating at
Wrexham General. One service will go to/from Birmingham New Street.
This service will be provided with Super Voyagers only (they will be in double formation until Crewe/Chester and single formation after that, with one unit terminating at Chester/going to Lancaster, and the other continuing to North Wales/Chester).
As can be seen from above, most calls south of Crewe are to be cut. However affected stations (like
Nuneaton,
Tamworth and
Lichfield) will have most of their service provided by a new
London Midland semi-fast Desiro service from
London to
Crewe. Virgin will stop very few services at these stations (mainly peak hour trains, not suitable for leisure travellers). Watford, Milton Keynes, Rugby and Stafford will also loose out, and the Desiro service will help to fill any gaps and facilitate good connexions at Crewe for further long distant travel.
Sources for the proposed new timetable:
Department for Transport
and
Virgin Trains
Cross Country
Prior to
11 November 2007, Virgin Trains ran the
Cross Country 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.
Performance
Virgin Trains has had a poor reputation for
punctuality compared with some other transport operators . This perception seems to be a mixture of truth, passenger 'accounts' and media exaggeration. The company has now improved its punctuality and the figures published on Virgin Trains' website are consistent with this view. During the year ending
December 31,
2002, only 73.6% of West Coast trains and 62.5% of Cross-Country trains arrived within 10 minutes of the scheduled arrival time (source:
SRA National Rail Trends). However Virgin has consistently improved its punctuality and for the year ending
December 31,
2005, Cross Country 'Voyager' services were up to 80.0% and the West Coast 'Pendolino' services up to 79.9% against an average of 80.8% for long-distance operators. This has gradually stabilised and figures released by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) of the year
2007 were 83.8% for the West Coast franchise and 84.9% for the CrossCountry franchise - based on PPM (Public Performance Measure) for the last quarter of the financial year 2006/7 .
The final figures published for the CrossCountry franchise were 83.4% (PPM) for the first half of the third quarter of the financial year of 2007/8 and 85.3% (MAA) for the final 12 months of the franchise.
The latest figures published for the West Coast franchise were 84.5% (PPM) for the third quarter of 2007/8 and 85.8% (MAA) up to 31 December 2007.
Problems with punctuality had been widely attributed by Virgin to the ageing and increasingly unreliable rolling stock and the equally ageing and outdated infrastructure on which it ran, although other train operating companies managed to operate the same equipment such as High Speed Trains with considerably greater reliability, implying that Virgin’s maintenance regime was partly to blame.
The introduction of the
Pendolino stock on the West Coast Main Line and more modern diesel-electric trains on the Cross Country route are now helping improve reliability and punctuality as Virgin and
Alstom resolve any teething problems with the Virgin Trains fleet.
Despite this however, Virgin has retained some of its elderly Mark 3 coaching stock and associated locomotives to provide back-up for any further teething problems with the Pendolinos and Voyagers.
Grayrigg derailment
On the evening of
23 February,
2007, a Virgin Trains service from London Euston to Glasgow Central derailed near Oxenholme in North West England. The train was the 17:15 service,
headcode 1S83, from Euston and was a Class 390 Pendolino. The train was carrying about 180 people. Several carriages were left lying on the railway embankments. An 84-year-old woman, named as Margaret Masson, from Glasgow, died in the crash. Five seriously injured people were hospitalised suffering from back, neck and head injuries. One of those in a serious condition is the train driver, Iain Black, who has been hailed as a hero by Virgin boss Richard Branson. The accident was caused by a faulty set of points.
The past
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.
Problems
A drive was made to improve reliability and punctuality after much press criticism in 2001, but by 2006, due to improved reliability of trains and completion of major infrastructure projects, performance was comparable with other intercity operators. Virgin have undertaken a number of project to increase punctuality, including radio controlled watches
Given
Richard Branson's personal popularity with much of the British public and the high-profile success of some of his other business ventures such as the
Virgin Atlantic airline, the failure of Virgin Trains may appear unusual considering that the company receives around £240,000,000 public subsidy from taxpayers annually (but might perhaps be considered alongside
Virgin Cola and
Virgin Vodka, both brands launched in a blaze of publicity, but have now largely disappeared).
New Trains
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 225
km/h (140
mph), but will be limited to 200 km/h (125 mph) on the West Coast Main Line; there have been proposals for 135mph running on certain sections of the
WCML, namely the remodelled Trent Valley area but these are yet to be considered by
Network Rail . The cross-country routes have been served by new diesel-electric four-carriage
Class 220 Voyager and five-carriage
Class 221 Super Voyager trains. The Super Voyager trains have
tilting ability like the Pendolino and will be used for services operating on the West Coast Main 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. Shortcomings of the West Coast Mainline modernisation project meant that the higher frequencies have not yet been achieved and during peak periods there's sometimes overcrowding. As well as this, the extremities of the network didn't get a higher frequency.
New Tracks
The West Coast Main Line 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's now running three years late, and has cost twice the original estimate. (see
West Coast Main Line page for full details).
New Timetable
In May 2003, following the poor punctuality and extreme overcrowding brought on by their new 'Operation Princess' clockface timetable launched in September 2002, Virgin Trains introduced some new set-down only or pick-up only stops into its passenger timetable. What is unusual about these restricted stops is that they're in the middle of the train journey, rather than the common practice of instituting set-down only stops at the next-to-last station or pick-up only on the second station of a train’s run. For instance, some South-North trains are pick-up only at Oxford, despite Oxford being the sixth or seventh stop and previous stops not being pick-up only. The company has stated that these are enforceable 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, although exactly how this can be enforced once a passenger has left the train is unclear. The apparent 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
Taunton,
Exeter St Davids and
Didcot Parkway without stopping. For the Winter 2005 timetable,
Milton Keynes Central was 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.
The future
Projected growth in passenger numbers on the West Coast routes has prompted discussions about increasing the length of Pendolino sets to 11 or (more likely) 10 vehicles. The likelihood of 10 car formations was foreseen in the original WCML strategy, so minimal infrastructure improvements would be required. A decision was expected from DfT by the end of 2006. This has been put in jeopardy recently as a result of an enquiry into the leasing of trains being carried out by the Competition Commission. It is likely that plans will delay the improvements until 2011/2012. The DFT is now going to order 2 extra coaches for 31 of the 52 sets to start with. This will be completed by 2012 just before the franchise change in the march of 2012. Ther is now talk that a further 23 9-car 390's will be ordered for extra capicaty and to replace the class 221's on Birmingham to Scotland services. The Voyagers might be used to help increase services to North Wales or some to be returned to Cross-Country. This could be completed by 2014.
Following the completion of the
Trent Valley Line quadrupling and Rugby junction upgrades to allow 125mph 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.
Virgin have consistently expressed an interest in the InterCity East Coast franchise since privatisation. However, it failed in its bid in 2005 to gain control of the route from incumbent GNER. On
15 December 2006, the DfT announced its wishes for GNER to 'surrender' the East Coast franchise, following financial and operational problems at its parent company,
Sea Containers. This caused a re-start of the bidding process in which the DfT stated that GNER was welcome to re-bid for the franchise, an opportunity which they didn't take up. However in a curious twist the GNER board later announced they'd join the bid submitted Virgin and
Stagecoach Group which has been shortlisted under the name "Intercity Railways". On Tuesday
14 August 2007,
Department for Transport announced that
National Express East Coast (NXEC Trains Ltd) had won the franchise .
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's 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 28th April 2008. In
February 2008, Virgin announced that they'd 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..
On
June 7,
2007,
Richard Branson and
Gordon Brown launched Europe's first bio-diesel train for a scheduled 11:27 London Euston - Llandudno service.
Virgin Trains routes
Current routes
Rolling Stock
Current fleet
The majority of Virgin's services along the WCML are operated by its fleet of 53 nine-car
Class 390 Pendolino EMUs. The Class 390 units are also used on services along the unelectrfied
North Wales Coast Line. For these, they're pulled by one of 16
Class 57 diesel locomotives operated by Virgin. These locomotives are primarily used for "Thunderbird" duties. Virgin also operates 16 five-car
Class 221 Super Voyager DMUs; these primarily operate on the WCML north of Birmingham, and on the North Wales line. Virgin has also been operating a
Class 90 electric locomotive and rake of coaches as a back-up set for the WCML to cover any problems with the
Pendolino and
Voyager fleets.
The Pendolino fleet is allocated to the
Manchester Traincare Centre at
Longsight, 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 Rugby, Stafford and Preston.
The Class 221 Super Voyager fleet is allocated to
Central Rivers depot near Burton on Trent, Staffordshire.
As part of the Government's new rolling stock programme, the Pendolino fleet will be extended with the construction of up to 106 new vehicles, which will be used to lengthen the existing fleet, as well as form a complete new train to replace the one written off due to The Grayrigg Train Disaster.
Past fleet
The Class 87 and 90 electric locomotives, as well as the small number of Class 86's retained for WCML duties, were allocated to
Willesden depot in northwest London. Cross Country's allocation of '86's' were allocated to Longsight, Manchester.
The HST sets were allocated to Laira (Plymouth ) although a small number of these would be regularly based at Longsight to operate on WCML services between Manchester/Holyhead and Euston.
The Mk3 coaching sets were allocated to Longsight and Polmadie (Glasgow) whilst the West Coast allocation of Mk2 sets - used almost exclusively on Euston to West Midlands trains - were allocated to Oxley (Wolverhampton ).
Further Information
Get more info on 'Virgin Trains'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://virgin_trains.totallyexplained.com">Virgin Trains Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
