Virgin Trains (legal name West Coast Trains Limited) was a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Virgin Rail Group, a joint venture between Virgin Group and

Stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are dra ...

, which operated the

InterCity West Coast InterCity West Coast (ICWC) was a 1997–2019 Passenger rail franchising in Great Britain, railway franchise in the United Kingdom for passenger trains on the West Coast Main Line (and branches thereof), between Euston railway station, London E ...

franchise from 9 March 1997 to 7 December 2019. The franchise covered long-distance passenger services on the West Coast Main Line between London, the West Midlands,

North West England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, administrative counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of ...

North Wales North Wales ( cy, Gogledd Cymru) is a regions of Wales, region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders Mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, ...

and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, consequently connecting six of the UK's largest cities: London,

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...

and

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, which have a combined

metropolitan Metropolitan may refer to: * Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories * Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England * Metropolitan county, a typ ...

population of over 18 million. Virgin Trains had around 3,400 employees in 2015. The Virgin Trains brand was also used on the legally and operationally separate Virgin Trains East Coast from 2015 until 2018, and previously on

Virgin CrossCountry Virgin CrossCountry was a train operating company in the United Kingdom operating the InterCity CrossCountry passenger franchise from January 1997 until November 2007. Virgin CrossCountry operated some of the longest direct rail services in t ...

, which operated between 1997 and 2007, as well as from 2018 to 2020 by Virgin Trains USA in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

. The contract expired on 7 December 2019 (having been originally scheduled for expiry in March 2020) and Virgin did not contest losing the franchise after its joint venture partner, Stagecoach, was disqualified due to an invalid bid in April 2019.

History

Virgin Rail Group was awarded the

franchise in January 1997, beating Sea Containers and

, with operations commencing on 9 March 1997. In October 1998 Virgin Group sold 49% of the shares in Virgin Rail Group to Stagecoach. When Virgin won the franchise,

Railtrack Railtrack was a group of companies that owned the track, signalling, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and all but a handful of the stations of the British railway system from 1994 until 2002. It was created as part of the privatisation of ...

was to upgrade the West Coast Main Line to allow tilting trains to operate at 140 mph by 2005. In the wake of the collapse of

and the inability of

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's len ...

to deliver on the 140 mph West Coast Main Line upgrade, both the

and Virgin Trains West Coast franchises were suspended in favour of management contracts in July 2002. Due to costs having blown out from £2.5 billion to £10 billion there were cutbacks to the upgrade, and the top speed was reduced to 125 mph. Virgin Trains' franchise was due to expire in March 2012. In 2009

Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is a British billionaire, entrepreneur, and business magnate. In the 1970s he founded the Virgin Group, which today controls more than 400 companies in various fields. Branson expressed ...

launched a campaign to have the next franchise period extended for 20 to 30 years, so that Virgin could spend more on infrastructure and see a return on its investment. Branson said the journey time between London and Birmingham could be reduced by 22 minutes to under one hour. This was turned down by the

Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The ...

. Virgin had applied for a two-year extension, but this was ruled out by the Department of Transport on legal grounds. In January 2011 the Department for Transport called for expressions of interest in bidding for the next InterCity West Coast franchise. In March 2011 the Department announced that

Abellio Abellio (also Abelio and Abelionni) was a god worshiped in the Garonne Valley in Gallia Aquitania (now southwest France), known primarily by a number of inscriptions which were discovered in Comminges, in the Pyrenees. He may have been a god o ...

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.Keolis/

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffic ...

and Virgin Rail Group had been shortlisted to bid for the franchise. In May 2011 the Secretary of State for Transport announced that the end date had been postponed to allow the recommendations in the McNulty Report to be absorbed. In October 2011 the Department announced that Virgin had been granted a franchise extension until December 2012. An Invitation to tender was issued to the shortlisted bidders in January 2012, and the Department for Transport awarded FirstGroup the new franchise in August 2012. In October 2012 the Secretary of State announced that the government was cancelling the franchise competition for the InterCity West Coast franchise after discovering significant technical flaws in the way the franchise process was conducted, reversing the decision to award it to FirstGroup. Following an independent review of the franchising process, a fresh competition would be held. The government announced that it would negotiate with Virgin Trains to run the InterCity West Coast franchise for a further 9 to 13 months. In December 2012 Virgin was awarded a 23-month management contract to run the franchise until 9 November 2014. In March 2013 the Secretary of State announced that the franchise would again be extended until 31 March 2017."Railway plan puts new focus on passengers"
. Secretary of State for Transport. 26 March 2013. In July 2013 the

Office of Rail Regulation The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the economic and safety regulation of Britain's railways, and the economic monitoring of National Highways. ORR regulates Network Rail by setting ...

rejected an application by Virgin Trains to operate new services to

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

and Blackpool North, citing capacity constraints on the West Coast Main Line. In November 2013 a revised application for services to Shrewsbury and Blackpool North was approved, and the services started in December 2014. In November 2016, the franchise was further extended until March 2019. In February 2018 the contract was extended until March 2019, with an option to extend it further to March 2020. However, in March 2018 it was announced that the contract would end in September 2019 when the new

West Coast Partnership The West Coast Partnership (WCP) is a railway franchise in the United Kingdom for passenger trains on the West Coast Main Line (WCML)(and branches thereof), between London Euston, the West Midlands, Shropshire, North Wales, Liverpool, Manchest ...

franchise would commence. In December 2018, it was announced that Virgin Trains had been granted a one-year extension until March 2020. In August 2019 it was announced that the Inter-City West Coast franchise had been awarded to Avanti West Coast, thus confirming that Virgin Trains would cease to operate trains after 7 December 2019. The final Virgin Trains service was the 21:42 service from London Euston to Wolverhampton arriving at 23:45.

Services

In May 1998 Virgin introduced two new services from London Euston, to

and to Blackpool North. The former ceased in 1999, the latter in May 2003. In December 2014, a daily weekday service between London Euston and Blackpool North and a twice daily service between London Euston and Shrewsbury were reintroduced. This was increased to 4 trains per day in the May 2018 timetable. In September 2004, a London Euston to

Llandudno Llandudno (, ) is a seaside resort, town and community in Conwy County Borough, Wales, located on the Creuddyn peninsula, which protrudes into the Irish Sea. In the 2011 UK census, the community – which includes Gogarth, Penrhyn Bay, Craig ...

service was introduced, but it ceased in December 2008. In September 2005, Virgin introduced its first timetable following the completion of Stage 1 of the upgrade. In December 2007, as part of a reshuffle of rail franchises by the

, services from

Birmingham New Street Birmingham New Street is the largest and busiest of the three main railway stations in Birmingham city centre, England, and a central hub of the British railway system. It is a major destination for Avanti West Coast services from , and vi ...

to Edinburgh Waverley and Glasgow Central via

Crewe Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The Crewe built-up area had a total population of 75,556 in 2011, which also covers parts of the adjacent civil parishes of Willaston ...

were transferred from the CrossCountry franchise to the InterCity West Coast franchise. In December 2008, a Wrexham General to London Euston service was introduced, operating south in the morning with an evening return. In February 2009, an hourly London Euston to

Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...

service was introduced. From January 2009, Virgin Trains gradually rolled out a new "very high frequency" timetable to take advantage of the completed West Coast Main Line upgrade. There were timetable changes from 8 December 2013. Trains between Edinburgh/Glasgow and London services would call at Sandwell & Dudley, replacing the hourly Wolverhampton to Euston service. In addition most Liverpool services additionally called at Crewe. Virgin Trains off-peak service map (2013)

Virgin Trains off-peak service map (2013)

Performance

Passenger numbers

Punctuality

Virgin Trains suffered poor punctuality compared with some other transport operators between 2001 and 2006, according to Office of Rail Regulation statistics. Punctuality did gradually improve until the introduction of a new timetable (in December 2008), following the upgrade of the West Coast Main Line, which resulted in a dip in performance. Performance subsequently recovered and peaked during 2010–11, but then fell again and reached a new low for the year ending 31 March 2013 of 83.6% (MAA). The PPM MAA ( Public Performance Measure Moving Annual Average - % of trains arriving within 10 minutes of the scheduled times) figures for Virgin Trains are as follows: Latest figures published by Network Rail for the seventh period of 2013-2014 recorded PPM of 92.2% for the period and a MAA of 83.5% for the 12 months up to 12 October 2013. The PPM performance for the period is down 2.7 percentage points on the corresponding figure from the same period last year. Network Rail noted that Virgin Trains were only responsible for 16% of delays in period 5. Network Rail was itself directly responsible for 50% of Virgin Trains' delays, 20% were a result of external factors (e.g. fatalities) and the final 14% were due to other operators. Chris Green as chief executive led a drive 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 has undertaken a number of projects to increase punctuality, including radio-controlled watches.

Grayrigg derailment

On 23 February 2007 a Class 390 ''Pendolino'' "City of Glasgow" forming the 17:15 London Euston to Glasgow Central service derailed in the village of Grayrigg in Cumbria. The train was carrying 109 people. Several carriages were left lying on the railway embankments. An elderly woman was killed in the derailment. Five people were seriously injured. The accident was caused by a faulty set of points and Network Rail accepted full responsibility. The train itself however was widely praised for the way it retained its structural integrity. Richard Branson also praised the train driver because he attempted to stop the train and did not get out of the cab before it derailed.

Rolling stock

Fleet at end of franchise

Virgin inherited a fleet of , and s hauling

Mark 2 Mark 2 is the second chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. In this chapter, the first arguments between Jesus and other Jewish religious teachers appear. Jesus heals a paralyzed man and forgives his sins, m ...

and

Mark 3 Mark 3 is the third chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It relates a conflict over healing on the Sabbath, the commissioning of the Twelve Apostles, a conflict with scribes and a meeting of Jesus with h ...

carriages with Driving Van Trailers on its electrified services and High Speed Trains for London Euston to

Holyhead Holyhead (,; cy, Caergybi , "Cybi's fort") is the largest town and a community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales, with a population of 13,659 at the 2011 census. Holyhead is on Holy Island, bounded by the Irish Sea to the north, and i ...

services. A franchise commitment was the replacement of these trains with new tilting stock. In 1999 Virgin signed a deal to lease forty-four eight-carriage and nine nine-carriage Class 390 ''Pendolinos'' built by

Alstom Alstom SA is a French multinational corporation, multinational rolling stock manufacturer operating worldwide in rail transport markets, active in the fields of passenger transportation, signalling, and locomotives, with products including the A ...

. An option to extend all to nine carriages was enacted in 2002. The first entered service in January 2003. With the exception of services to

, the final locomotive hauled trains were withdrawn in June 2005. To operate the

services four four-carriage Class 221 ''Super Voyagers'' were included in the order placed by

. By the time they were delivered it was decided these would be too short so they entered service with Virgin CrossCountry. In September 2004 the High Speed Trains were withdrawn with services being operated by a combination of five-carriage Class 221 ''Super Voyagers'' hired from Virgin CrossCountry and and hauled Mark 3 sets. From September 2005 Class 57/3s hauling Class 390 ''Pendolinos'' took over the locomotive hauled diagrams. This continued until December 2008 when five-carriage Class 221 ''Super Voyagers'' took over all services, with the exception of a Saturdays only Pendolino hauled by a Class 57/3 Locomotive (1D83 08:50 EUS-HHD/1A55 14:38 HHD-EUS). This ceased operation on Saturday 8 December 2012. With the Class 390 ''Pendolinos'' needing modification in 2006, a First GBRf was hired to haul a Mark 3 set on

services. To operate the

and

services transferred from

CrossCountry CrossCountry (legal name XC Trains Limited) is a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Arriva UK Trains, operating the Cross Country franchise. The CrossCountry franchise was restructured by the Department for Transport (DfT ...

in December 2007, three four-carriage and thirteen five-carriage Class 221 ''Super Voyagers'' were transferred. A further five five-carriage Class 221 ''Super Voyagers'' followed in December 2008. In August 2008 Bombardier started a programme to rearrange the Class 221 ''Super Voyagers'' with the carriage containing the shop moved to adjoin the first class carriage and refurbished with 2+2 seats arranged more spaciously around tables. This allowed it to be used as a first class carriage on

services and as a standard class carriage at other times. In December 2010 one four-carriage Class 221 ''Super Voyager'' was disbanded with the two centre carriages being inserted into the other four-carriage sets to give Virgin a fleet of twenty five-carriage Class 221 ''Super Voyagers''. The two end carriages are stored at Central Rivers depot. To provide it with a fleet of locomotives for use on diversionary services during the West Coast Mainline upgrade and rescue duties, Virgin signed a deal with Porterbrook in March 2002 to rebuild twelve Class 47s as Class 57/3s with the first delivered in June 2002. After it was decided they would operate daily services along the North Wales Coast to

, another four were ordered from Porterbrook. Following the completion of the West Coast Main Line upgrade in 2008 their use fell and after being sublet to

Arriva Trains Wales Arriva Trains Wales (ATW; cy, Trenau Arriva Cymru) was a British train operating company owned by Arriva UK Trains that operated the Wales & Borders franchise. It ran urban and inter-urban passenger services to all railway stations in Wales, ...

, Colas Rail and First GBRf, six were returned to Porterbrook in August 2011, three in April 2012 and the remaining seven in December 2012. Virgin had long been angling for a franchise extension in return for ordering extra carriages for the Class 390 ''Pendolinos''. The

rejected this and instead placed an order itself with

for 106 carriages allowing for four complete eleven-carriage sets and 31 sets to be extended by two carriages. There was an option to extend the remaining 21 sets but this was allowed to lapse. The four new sets were delivered in 2010/12 with 31 sets later receiving extra carriages. This required a number of stations to have platforms lengthened. Following the loss of a Class 390 ''Pendolino'' in the

Grayrigg derailment The Grayrigg derailment was a fatal railway accident that occurred at approximately 20:15 GMT on 23 February 2007, just to the south of Grayrigg, Cumbria, in the North West England region of the United Kingdom. The accident investigation concl ...

, a Mark 3 set with a Driving Van Trailer was leased with a hired from English Welsh & Scottish as required. In 2008 Virgin looked at leasing two but decided to retain the Mark 3 set. Nicknamed the ''Pretendolino'', this received re-upholstered seating, power points,

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio waves ...

and a full external re-paint at Wabtec,

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

in 2009. Virgin used this set with a Class 90 locomotive hired from Freightliner on a Euston to Crewe (via Birmingham) service on Fridays only until December 2012. From 9 December 2013 it was utilised to operate a London Euston-Birmingham New Street train on Thursdays and Fridays only, until its withdrawal in October 2014. All seats on Class 221 ''Super Voyagers'' and Class 390 ''Pendolinos'' originally had an on-board audio entertainment system featuring a number of radio or pre-recorded music channels. This was disabled in March 2010 and replaced with on-board Wi-Fi provided by EE. The service was available free in first class, and for a charge (which varied depending on how long the passenger wished to use it for) in standard class. On 15 September 2015 it was announced that Virgin Trains were to rename Pendolino 390002 in memory of teenage fundraiser

Stephen Sutton Stephen Robert Sutton (16 December 1994 – 14 May 2014), was an English blogger and charity activist known for his blog ''Stephen's Story'' and his fundraising efforts for the Teenage Cancer Trust charity for the aid of teenagers with cance ...

Past fleet

Former units operated by Virgin Trains include:

Depots

The Class 390 fleet was allocated to the Alstom Traincare Centre at Longsight with lighter maintenance and overnight servicing carried out at Wembley, Oxley, Edge Hill and Polmadie depots. The Class 221 fleet was allocated to Bombardier's Central Rivers depot with lighter maintenance and overnight servicing carried out at

Arriva TrainCare Arriva TrainCare (formerly LNWR) is a railway rolling stock maintenance company. Formed in 1993 by Pete Waterman, it is a subsidiary of Arriva UK Trains. History In 1993, Pete Waterman formed LNWR to provide maintenance for locomotives and r ...

and Polmadie.

West Coast Partnership

In November 2016, the government announced that the franchise would be replaced by a new franchise named the

, which will include operating

High Speed 2 High Speed 2 (HS2) is a planned high-speed railway line in England, the first phase of which is under construction in stages and due for completion between 2029 and 2033, depending on approval for later stages. The new line will run from its m ...

(HS2). Services are planned to begin on the first phase of HS2 in 2026. The Department for Transport requires that the new operator have experience in operating high-speed trains () and infrastructure. The bid for the new franchise was led by Stagecoach holding a 50% holding, Virgin with 30% and the French national railway operator

holding 20%. In April 2019 Stagecoach revealed that it had been disqualified from the franchises it was bidding for following a dispute with the DfT over pension liabilities. The disqualification occurred after the bidding deadline and as a result Virgin Trains would cease operations in March 2020. In August 2019, the First Trenitalia consortium was awarded the West Coast Partnership contract, with Avanti West Coast commencing in December 2019, thus ending Virgin Trains services after 22 years.

Operation

Sponsorship

Virgin Trains were Carlisle United F.C.'s travel sponsor for the 2013–14 season, and for the 2014–15 season they are the club's main shirt sponsor agreeing a further two-year deal. On 5 August 2014 Virgin Trains also agreed to be the shirt sponsor of Preston North End F.C. on a two-year deal. Darlington Football Club were also sponsored by Virgin Trains, and the company has also sponsored events such as

Manchester International Festival The Manchester International Festival is a biennial international arts festival, with a specific focus on original new work, held in the English city of Manchester and run by Factory International. The festival is a biennial event, first tak ...

in 2013.

Onboard entertainment

In July 2016 the integrated infotainment system BEAM was provided on all trains by GoMedia, delivered directly to the passenger's own devices including mobile phones and tablets. The system has been described as 'the first in-train entertainment portal in the UK'. It offered premium movies from Hollywood studios, BBC Worldwide etc.

Moderation of competition

As a way of protecting the revenues of Virgin Trains to enable it to pay franchise premiums to the government to partly recoup the cost of the West Coast Main Line upgrade, the

inserted a ''Moderation of Competition'' in Virgin's Track Access Agreement. Until its expiry in March 2012, this prevented any other train operating or open access companies operating services in competition that would abstract revenue.

Attempts to continue franchise

In November 2019, Virgin Trains submitted an application to the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) to apply for a license to run trains from Liverpool Lime Street to London Euston. The application stated the intention to use Class 221 Super Voyager trains (once they were retired by Avanti West Coast) with the franchise beginning in December 2022 initially until December 2027. However, in March 2020, Virgin withdrew its application for the service, citing uncertainty from the Williams Review of rail not having been published yet.

References

External links

Official website
archived in December 2019 * {{Virgin Group Defunct train operating companies Railway companies established in 1997 Railway companies disestablished in 2019 Stagecoach Group rail services British companies established in 1997 British companies disestablished in 2019