Virgin Trains reach for the skies as fliers switch to the fast track

17 June 2009

More frequent departures and even faster journeys are on the Virgin Trains agenda as demand for rail travel grows and air goes into decline.

Virgin Trains is going all out for the Glasgow market, having grounded the airlines between Liverpool and London and become the travel mode of choice for Manchester-London.

Today Tony Collins, Chief Executive Officer of Virgin Trains, fleshed out more details of the Virgin 2020 vision that was outlined by Sir Richard Branson last month.

Mr Collins explained how schedules can be reduced still further, including getting the journey time between London and central Glasgow below four hours, with at least one train every hour once more trains are introduced.

He pointed to the potential for further reductions in timings and confirmed that Virgin Trains plans even better timetables on the West Coast Main Line linking Scotland, North West England, North Wales and the West Midlands to London Euston.

Rail’s share of the rail-air market is now 100 per cent on the Liverpool route and 77 per cent and growing for Manchester. Now there are clear signs that people travelling between Glasgow and London are also joining the trend to rail.

“Rail’s market share between Glasgow and London is set to reach double what it was five years ago and Virgin is convinced we can do much better than that. There is no reason why rail cannot win half of the entire Glasgow market once timings are below four hours," Tony Collins said.

“We used to be the minority carrier between Manchester and London. But now almost everybody goes by train to take advantage of uninterrupted, useful journey time rather than waste time flying. There is no good reason why rail should always continue to be the minority carrier for the Glasgow market," he added.

Rail's share of the Glasgow/London rail-air market was only 6 per cent five years ago but in the six months to February 2009, rose from 9 per cent to 11 per cent, even before the full benefit of the new Virgin Trains timetable was felt. The delivery of a best weekday schedule of 4 hours 10 minutes from 16 February and better weekend services since last month mean that Virgin Pendolino trains are even more competitive with air. Typical journey time from London Euston is 4 hours 31 minutes.

Opportunities for speed improvements and extra trains are being investigated. A scheduled time of less than four hours between London and Glasgow is practical.

By 2015 Virgin Trains would transform more stations into superb assets for the communities they serve. At Carlisle, the true beauty of restored historic elegance would link with the finesse of high-quality present and future customer service. There is also considerable scope for improvement at Crewe and Preston in the early years of a new franchise.

Virgin aims to further improve journey times for Liverpool, North Wales and Manchester as well as Glasgow, and deliver new London services for Nuneaton and even more trains for the West Midlands too if granted a long enough franchise to fund such service enhancement.

New high-speed tracks, Heathrow Airport and HS1 for the Continent would all link to an enhanced West Coast Main Line.