Virgin Trains appoints Paul Furze-Waddock as new Business Development Director

Virgin Trains has appointed Paul Furze-Waddock as its new Business Development Director. Paul takes up his new job in the new year and his main focus will be future franchise bidding, including the West Coast franchise, which is due for re-bidding in March 2012. He will report directly to Virgin Trains’ Chief Executive Officer Tony Collins.

Paul has a proven track record within the railway industry having previously worked for Angel Trains and latterly with First Group as Commercial Director - Rail.

Tony Collins said: “I am absolutely delighted that Paul will be joining the senior Virgin Trains team at a very exciting time. He has a strong track record in successful franchise bids and is the right person to lead Virgin’s rail franchise activity. His appointment is a real demonstration of our commitment to bid for, and retain, the West Coast franchise whilst also looking at other opportunities.”

Paul Furze-Waddock said: “I have enjoyed eight highly successful years helping First Group to achieve its strong position in rail and I want to bring that knowledge and experience to the dynamic Virgin Trains brand to help continue its excellent customer service reputation.”

Pendolino set to be biggest selling train model for a third year running

The popularity of Virgin’s Pendolino trains means they are set to be Hornby’s biggest-selling train model for a third year running. The popularity of the model version of the Pendolino is mirrored by the fact that thousands of passengers have already bought tickets for travel on Virgin Trains services over the festive period.

Virgin Trains is urging all customers to book early for Christmas and New Year travel and tickets have been on sale since early October allowing many customers to already have obtained seats on the trains of their choice at the cheapest rates. Restrictions on Off Peak tickets will be lifted from 24 December 2009 to 3 January 2010 inclusive while Advance tickets are currently on sale for all travel days during the holiday period.

Full details of train times at Christmas and New Year are now available on nationalrail.co.uk while tickets and seats can be booked on virgintrains.com or by calling 08457 222 333.

On a smaller level thousands of scale models of the Pendolino train have already been bought and are ready to be wrapped as Christmas presents. Made by model manufacturer Hornby, the Pendolino train set is already one of Hornby’s best selling train model this year, a record that it is expected to retain for Christmas 2009 sales.

Virgin's fleet of 52 Pendolino tilting trains, built and maintained by Alstom, have already covered over a million miles each and the first trains are now hitting the million-and-a-half mile marker. The entire fleet has travelled over 72 million miles and is expected to travel around 16 million miles a year – that’s over 30 return trips to the moon!.

The 'real' Pendolino features at seat service in First Class of hot and cold drinks and light refreshments, including a typically British breakfast. Improvements have been made to enhance mobile phone reception and onboard WiFi is now available. Power points at most seats allow charging of laptop computers and mobile phones and an audio entertainment system operates throughout the train. A walk-in shop is also provided and regenerative braking captures the energy from brake applications and puts electricity back into the electricity supply system.

Hornby's Pendolino takes railway models to new levels. This stunning four car Pendolino pack is representative of Virgin Trains latest state of the art passenger train. The new Hornby 4 car model is ready to use straight out of the box. Designed to capture the real essence and style of its full size counterpart, the Pendolino certainly can show off its accurate tilting mechanism especially when the train travels at speed around bends. Each Power Car unit is fitted with directional lights plus a Hornby Digital decoder so that the lights can be switched on and off even when the train is in motion! Additional Pendolino coaches are available so that a full-length train can be created.

Chris Gibb, Virgin Trains Chief Operating Officer said: "We are pleased that record numbers of passengers have already bought tickets for travel on our Pendolino train services over the festive period. Many have been attracted by our lower priced Advance fares, such as London to Birmingham single from £8. These are not just Festive offers, and tickets at this price are already on sale for travel through until mid-January, with more dates added each week.

"It is also pleasing that in homes around the UK, and possibly abroad, the Pendolino train will be running and delighting many thousands of children, and adults, on Christmas Day when our fleet of full sized trains will be taking a well earned break."

Simon Kohler, Hornby's Railways Group Marketing Manager said: "Virgin’s Pendolino has become the iconic image of high speed trains in the UK and we are pleased that we have been able to include it in our range of railway models. It is one of our most popular train sets and we are sure that the Pendolino will make it a happy Christmas for thousands of people.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

Images of Virgin Trains and the company’s operations are available in the Image Library on our online Media Room website http://mediaroom.virgintrains.co.uk/

You can subscribe to receive alerts to new press releases by visiting http://mediaroom.virgintrains.co.uk/

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 recognised in numerous industry awards. In 2009 the company was awarded the Globe Travel Awards 2009 ‘Best Rail Operator’ Category as voted by Evening Standard readers; voted Best UK Domestic Train Service by Business Traveller magazine for the second year running; and named Best Rail Operator in the 2009 Group Leisure Awards, run by Group Leisure, the magazine for group travel organisers.

The popularity and intensive use of the Pendolino trains means that they will each clock up a million miles in around half the time trains took a decade ago. In providing a 24/7 maintenance regime for the Pendolino fleet, Alstom ensures that the trains can meet their demanding schedule every day.

The state-of-the-art 125mph Pendolino trains also save energy and reducing pollution as they return energy to the electrical feeder stations every time they brake. The 52 tilting trains, designed, built and maintained by Alstom, are fitted with electronic control systems that cause the traction motors to provide braking effort by generating electricity back into the supply system.

Regenerative braking used on the Pendolino trains also reduces the use of the friction brakes, dramatically reducing brake-pad dust and pollution, to provide a double environmental benefit.

Virgin Trains also has 21 Super Voyager diesel trains, built by Bombardier, which operate alongside the Pendolino fleet, normally on services from London to Chester and North Wales and between Birmingham and Glasgow/Edinburgh.




Photographs are available to illustrate this Press Release. Please contact the Virgin Trains Press Office on 0845 000 3333.

All Virgin Trains services now open for booking during Christmas and New Year

Book early for Christmas and New Year travel is the message from Virgin Trains to ensure that customers obtain seats on the trains of their choice at the cheapest rates.

Restrictions on Off Peak tickets will be lifted from 24 December to 3 January inclusive while Advance tickets are currently on sale for all travel days during the holiday period.

Full details of train times at Christmas and New Year are now available on nationalrail.co.uk while tickets and seats can be booked on virgintrains.com or by calling 08457 222 333.

The general pattern of service through the holiday period is as follows:

December 24th: Normal Thursday service. Services reduced from early evening in preparation for a mid-evening shutdown.

December 25th and 26th: No service.

December 27th: Normal Sunday service. Some early morning trains withdrawn. Full service from mid morning. Wilmslow will be served by rail replacement coach services all day because of route improvement work.

December 28th: Normal Monday service. Wilmslow will be served by rail replacement coach services all day because of route improvement work.

December 29th and 30th: Normal weekday service.

December 31st: Normal Thursday service. Services reduced from early evening in preparation for a mid-evening shutdown.

January 1st: Some early morning services withdrawn. Normal weekday service from mid morning.

January 2nd and 3rd: Normal Saturday and Sunday services. No route improvement work.

January 4th onwards: Normal weekday service.


On the weekend of 19/20 December route improvement work will be taking place between Lockerbie and Carstairs. This will mean that from 11:30 on the Saturday Euston to Glasgow services will terminate at Carlisle and Birmingham to Glasgow/Edinburgh services will terminate at Lockerbie. Replacement coaches will run between Carlisle and Glasgow and between Lockerbie and Edinburgh. On the Sunday all services will terminate at Carlisle with replacement coaches from Carlisle to Edinburgh and Glasgow. The route will re-open at 14:30.

Ends

Notes to Editors

Images of Virgin Trains and the company’s operations are available in the Image Library on our online Media Room website http://mediaroom.virgintrains.co.uk/

You can subscribe to receive alerts to new press releases by visiting http://mediaroom.virgintrains.co.uk/

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 voted Best Rail Company by Travel Weekly magazine. In 2009 the company was voted Best UK Domestic Train Service by Business Traveller magazine for the second year running.

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

Virgin delivers best ever train performance

Virgin Trains’ West Coast rail franchise has just recorded its best ever train performance. In the four weeks ending 17 October 93.4 percent of trains arrived on time at their destination, beating the previous record of 91.3 percent in May 2006.

The latest performance figure is the highest since Virgin took over running the West Coast franchise in March 1997 and represents a 8.4 percent increase from the 85.0 percent performance recorded in the same period a year ago. An improved service has been consistently delivered over the last three months with nine out of every ten trains on time between August and October.

Since taking over the West Coast rail franchise, Virgin has increased the number of passengers from 13.6 million to 22.5 million a year; replaced the entire train fleet and now runs over 50% more trains on weekdays than it did 12 years ago.

Virgin Trains’ Chief Executive Tony Collins paid tribute to all Virgin Trains’ people whose commitment to the business remains at the highest level.

"It's great news for our customers and staff that we have our best punctuality ever at 93.4 percent, “ said Tony.

“After the many infrastructure problems of recent years, our customers have the level of service they rightly expect. Network Rail staff, headed by Route Director Jo Kaye, have made significant improvements, and I would thank them all, along with the people at Virgin Trains and train maintenance firms, Alstom and Bombardier, for delivering these excellent results.

“There still remain challenges with the infrastructure and Network Rail needs to ensure performance remains good during the late autumn and winter, but these results offer a great foundation."



Ends


Notes to Editors

Performance is measured using the industry standard Public Performance Measure (PPM) trains arriving within nine minutes of booked arrival time at destination.

Images of Virgin Trains and the company’s operations are available in the Image Library on our online Media Room website http://mediaroom.virgintrains.co.uk/

You can subscribe to receive alerts to new press releases by visiting http://mediaroom.virgintrains.co.uk/

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 recognised in numerous industry awards. In 2009 the company was awarded the Globe Travel Awards 2009 ‘Best Rail Operator’ Category as voted by Evening Standard readers; voted Best UK Domestic Train Service by Business Traveller magazine for the second year running; and named Best Rail Operator in the 2009 Group Leisure Awards, run by Group Leisure, the magazine for group travel organisers.

Penny the Pendolino makes it one-and-a-half-million

A Virgin Trains’ Pendolino tilting train, designed, built and maintained by Alstom, has become the first of the 52-strong fleet to clock up a million-and-a-half miles.

Train No. 390022, named Penny the Pendolino, smashed the million and a half mile barrier on Monday 19 October just north of Lancaster station as it worked the 07:30 service from London to Glasgow. The train has travelled over-half a million miles in under two years. It was previously the first Pendolino to clock up a million miles, which it did on the evening of Tuesday 8 January 2008, as it worked the 17:15 from London Euston to Glasgow. The train then clocked up its million miles just south of Bletchley in Buckinghamshire.

Over 22.5 million passenger journeys are now made with Virgin Trains every year. In travelling one-and-a-half million miles, Penny the Pendolino has travelled the equivalent of three return trips to the moon; or over 1,800 return trips from Glasgow to London.

The popularity and intensive use of the Pendolino trains means that they will each clock up a million miles in around half the time trains took a decade ago. In providing a 24/7 maintenance regime for the Pendolino fleet, Alstom ensures that the trains can meet their demanding schedule every day.

The state-of-the-art 125mph Pendolino trains emit on average 76% less carbon dioxide per seat than domestic airlines and are also saving energy and reducing pollution as they return energy to the electrical feeder stations every time they brake. The 52 tilting trains, designed, built and maintained by Alstom, are fitted with electronic control systems that cause the traction motors to provide braking effort by generating electricity back into the supply system. The generated electricity which is put back into the supply system achieves an overall energy saving of 17 percent.

Regenerative braking used on the Pendolino trains also reduces the use of the friction brakes, dramatically reducing brake-pad dust and pollution, to provide a double environmental benefit. The fleet of 52 Pendolino trains has now clocked up a total of 72.5 million miles between them.

Virgin Trains Chief Operating Officer Chris Gibb said: “This is a landmark for our Pendolino fleet, which also provides valuable benefits to the environment. We know that our passengers care about the environment and they can travel in the knowledge that by choosing to travel by train, they are doing their bit to save the planet and reduce consumption of energy.”

Alstom Transport UK Managing Director Paul Robinson said: “This milestone again demonstrates Alstom and Virgin’s round the clock teamwork in providing a safe, high-performance Pendolino fleet every day. We are fully committed to supporting Virgin in delivering a world-class intercity service.”

The reliability and performance of the Pendolino train fleet has also contributed to helping Virgin Trains record its best ever train performance figure. In the four weeks ending 17 October 2009, 93.4 percent of trains arrived on time at their destination, beating the previous record of 91.3 percent in May 2006.

The latest performance figure is the highest since Virgin took over running the West Coast franchise in March 1997 and represents a 8.4 percent increase from the 85.0 percent performance recorded in the same period a year ago. An improved service has been consistently delivered over the last three months with nine out of every ten trains on time between August and October 2009.

Virgin Trains supports Energy Saving Week 2009

To coincide with Energy Saving Week 2009, a video has been produced by Virgin Trains to highlight the environmentally friendly way to travel. The video features interviews with Peter Bowes, Safety and Environment Director and Jim Rowe, Communications Manager. It also focuses on a family from Coventry travelling to London for the weekend where we learn about what they do for the environment.

Click the link to watch the video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H0MtBID12M

More car parking spaces for Stafford railway station

More car parking spaces for Stafford railway station

Virgin Trains in partnership with Network Rail is doubling the number of car parking spaces available for rail passengers at Stafford station. When the new car park completed it will provide an additional 272 car parking spaces. The new 522-space car park is expected to be completed in late 2010.

Work is due to start on 26 October and passengers are advised that there will be a significant reduction in existing car parking spaces to allow construction of the new car park.

Virgin Trains Station Manager for Stafford Sheila Breeze said: “we would advise that the remaining spaces in the station car park are expected to be taken by 06:00 on weekdays and would ask customers to consider using the alternative car parking facility that is being provided on Doxey Road with a regular complimentary shuttle bus linking Doxey Road car park and the railway station.”

Mrs Breeze added: “we would also urge all customers who travel to Stafford station by car to allow extra time for their journey to the station, to ensure that they are still able to catch their intended train.”

David Golding, Network Rail's Route Enhancements Manager said: "More passengers are now travelling by train than ever before and the demand for rail travel is set to continue to rise. We predict that a large proportion of these extra passengers will drive to the station, putting more strain on the car park. We need to increase the number of parking spaces to cater for this demand so, working with Virgin Trains, we are now half-way through a £90 million to transform parking at many of the stations on the west coast main line."

The shuttle bus between Doxey Road car park and the rail station will operate between 05:30 and 00:30 on weekdays and between 08:00 and 00:30 at weekends.

The work at Stafford is part of a joint project between Virgin Trains and Network Rail to improve car parking at all 17 stations on the West Coast route which are managed by Virgin Trains. The other stations involved are: Lancaster, Penrith, Warrington Bank Quay, Wigan North Western, Carlisle, Oxenholme, Runcorn, Crewe, Stockport, Macclesfield, Stoke-on-Trent, Preston, Wolverhampton, Birmingham International, Coventry and Rugby.

Virgin Trains and Network Rail are working closely with Passenger Focus to minimise the inconvenience to customers during the work to improve car parking at Stafford station.