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.