Virgin Trains’ stations top poll for ticket buying facilities

Crewe and Preston have come top of an independent national poll of ticket buying facilities at rail stations. They were the only two stations managed by Virgin Trains surveyed in the research conducted by Passenger Focus.

The research looked at queues at ticket office and at ticket machines, and recorded the percentage of queues longer than 3 minutes off peak or 5 minutes during the peak. The scores for Crewe were 2 percent for ticket office and zero percent for ticket machines. Preston scored 1.2 percent and zero percent respectively.

Sam Dixon, Virgin Trains’ Station Manager for Crewe said: “My retail team work hard to deal with customer purchases quickly and efficiently and it is pleasing to note this is reflected in the Passenger Focus research. We also provide a member of staff in the booking hall between 06:15 and 14:30 Monday to Saturday to assist customers in using our ticket machines and build up their familiarity with this method of purchasing or collecting tickets.“

Linsey Robinson, Virgin Trains’ Station Manager for Preston said: ‘The results of the survey highlight how the team work hard to serve all our customers that flow through the station. They are committed to helping customers and their colleagues.”

Crewe and Preston are important stations and amongst the busiest in the country. The latest available annual figures (to the end of March 2009) show that 2.85million passengers used Crewe, while 4.73million passed through Preston.

In the recently published Spring 2010 National Passenger Survey, Virgin Trains also scored well for ticket buying facilities at stations. The company achieved 81 percent customer satisfaction, the equal top score among long-distance train operating companies, and nine percentage points above the national score of 72 percent.

Charity discounts from Virgin Trains CharityLine

From 13 August charities will be able to benefit from 20% discounts on Advance fares for use over the Virgin Trains network.

Charities which receive 10% or more of their income from voluntary sources can register for the new Virgin Trains Charityline by visiting thetrainline.com. Representatives travelling on the charity ‘s business will then be able to receive a 20% discount on the full range of Advance tickets sold by Virgin Trains for use solely on its network.

Virgin Trains is the only train operator to offer specific discounts for charities.

These new discounts replace the previous system operated by Virgin Trains for ten years, which allowed representatives of charities to travel on peak trains using Off-Peak tickets.

Virgin Trains CharityLine

Registration for the Virgin Trains CharityLine is through http://www.thetrainline.com/. Simply click on the ‘Business’ tab, then follow the instructions to ‘create a business account for my company’, making sure to select ‘charity’ when selecting business type.

To register, charities will be required to confirm that they receive a minimum of 10% of their income from voluntary sources. If their income was over £500k in their last accounting year they will be required to provide a link to the relevant Charity Commission webpage confirming this to be true.

Once set up, the account will also enable charities to monitor journeys made and download management information. The new system allows booking up to 2359 the day before travel rather than requiring seven days notice for the issue of tickets.

Advance tickets are available on all but a few of the busiest Virgin Trains. They are for use on the chosen train only. Their price varies according to the time of day and day of the week. The 20% discount applies to all Advance tickets. Booking early and travelling off-peak maximises the chances of getting the best value fares.

Passengers using the Virgin Trains CharityLine scheme must carry charity photo ID or a letter of authorisation on headed paper confirming they are travelling on the charitys’s business.

Bookings under the existing system will end on 20 August, although all tickets issued up and including this date will be honoured.

Thousands more seats for Cumbria and Scotland

More than 8,000 extra seats a week are to be introduced by Virgin Trains for summer holidaymakers.

Longer trains with more carriages will run between Birmingham and Edinburgh through Carlisle between Saturday 17 July and Saturday 4 September.

And two additional daily trains will link Carlisle and London Euston. This will free space on Glasgow/London trains for more passengers during the busiest part of the summer.

“Our trains are increasingly busy as more people switch from air and road thanks to Virgin’s improved timetable. The extra seats will help a lot to cope with rising demand since more and faster trains were introduced in 2008-9. Passengers should still book in advance to be sure of a reserved seat on their preferred train,” said Karen Hattie, the Virgin Trains General Manager for Scotland and Cumbria.

For further information contact the Virgin Trains Press Office on 0845 000 3333

Notes to Editors:
Between 17 July and 4 September, these trains will be operated daily between Mondays and Saturdays by Virgin Pendolinos, each with 439 seats, instead of Virgin SuperVoyagers with up to 256 seats each:

0617 (0620 Saturdays) and 1020 Birmingham New Street to Edinburgh.

1052 and 1452 Edinburgh to Birmingham New Street.

The 1020 from Birmingham to Edinburgh, and the 1052 and 1452 from Edinburgh, will operate as extensions of London Euston/West Midlands services to provide through journey opportunities to and from Scotland for London Euston, Coventry and Birmingham International passengers.

In addition to the current timetable, Virgin Pendolinos will run Mondays to Fridays to London Euston from Carlisle at 1045 and from London Euston at 1030 to Carlisle, the latter train also serving Oxenholme The Lake District and Penrith North Lakes. The 1045 from Carlisle will leave just four minutes ahead of the increasingly popular 0940 Glasgow Central to London Euston train so that Carlisle passengers can be the first on a train of their own instead of the busy train from Glasgow.

Journey times were reduced by Virgin Trains with the December 2008 timetable when additional trains were introduced. Typical times are around four-and-a-half hours between London and Glasgow and just over four hours between Birmingham and Edinburgh.

Images of Virgin Trains and the company’s operations are available on our online media website www.virgintrains.com. You will need to register to access the Media Resources section containing high-resolution images of our operations.

Virgin Trains is the brand name of Virgin Rail Group. We have operated the West Coast passenger train franchise since 1997; the current franchise runs to March 2012.

Virgin Rail Group is owned 51 percent by Virgin Group and 49 percent by Stagecoach.

Virgin Trains has been listed as the Best Train Operator in a survey by the Institute of Customer Service and has been voted Best Rail Company by Travel Weekly magazine and Best UK Domestic Train Service by Business Traveller magazine.

· Virgin Trains was awarded the Global Travel Awards 2009 ‘Best Rail Operator’ Category as voted by Evening Standard readers.