Virgin Trains to provide extra seats to meet increased demand from frustrated air passengers on Wednesday 25 May 2011

Virgin Trains will provide almost 3,500 extra seats on Wednesday 25 May 2011 for airline passengers facing uncertainty over airspace closures due to volcanic ash clouds.

The disruption following airspace closures has seen increases in demand for trains and more seats will be provided on the London to Glasgow and Birmingham to Glasgow/Edinburgh routes.

Besides the extra seats, Virgin Trains will operate an additional train from London Euston to Crewe, Warrington, Wigan and Preston at 13:33 and also extend the 14:30 London Euston to Lancaster service through to Carlisle and Glasgow Central.

An additional 20:40 Edinburgh Waverley to Manchester Piccadilly service will also run calling at Preston and Crewe. There will also be an additional 20:00 Glasgow Central to London Euston service which will call at Carlisle, Preston, Crewe and Birmingham International.

Based on experience during prolonged airspace closures last year,Virgin Trains has now set up a mechanism for quickly uplifting services in response to ash cloud warnings.

For details of times and fares and for booking tickets visit virgintrains.com or any Virgin Trains ticket office.

A decision on the level of service to be run later in the week will be made in the light of further updated forecasts from the Met Office.