Virgin Trains
| Virgin Trains | |
|---|---|
 
|
|
| Basic information | |
| company | West Coast Trains Limited |
| Concession and duration |
InterCity West Coast March 9, 1997 - April 2019 |
| Parent company | Virgin Rail Group ( Virgin Group 51% / Stagecoach Group 49%) |
| statistics | |
| fleet | 56 British Class 390 20 British Class 221 |
| Train stations | 42 (17 managed) |
| Main line | London (- Birmingham) - Liverpool (Merseyside) / Manchester - Lancaster - Carlisle - Glasgow - Edinburgh |
| Branch line | London– / Scotland - Holyhead |
| website | |
| virgintrains.co.uk | |
Virgin Trains is a British railway company . Although the company appears with the well-known logo of the Virgin Group , this group only owns 51 percent of the share capital. The remaining 49 percent are owned by the Stagecoach Group .
history
The company was founded after British Rail was privatized in the mid-1990s. Virgin Trains successfully applied for two national intercity -Verkehrskonzessionen in franchising . The first concession included the operation of the InterCity trains on the West Coast Main Line .
Virgin Trains also operated the cross-country route franchise until November 10, 2007 . However, this has since been restructured and assigned to other operators. The largest part went to Arriva , which now markets it under the CrossCountry brand. The previous trains for the destination Birmingham - Glasgow , which were previously operated by Virgin Cross Country, have been added to the West Coast franchise. The trains between Manchester and Scotland went to the First Group .
The remaining West Coast franchise was originally supposed to expire in 2012, but was extended to early 2013 in favor of a longer tender and review. In August 2012 it was finally announced that Virgin Trains had lost the new tender and that the franchise should be operated by the First Group as First West Coast from December 2012 . However, due to an incorrect invitation to tender, this decision was revised and Virgin Trains was granted the route rights again for at least one year until another round of awarding of contracts takes place.
Between March 2015 and June 2018, a sister company of Virgin Trains, Virgin Trains East Coast , operated intercity traffic on the East Coast Main Line , replacing the previous operator East Coast . Virgin owned only 10% of the shares in this operating company, Stagecoach 90%.
vehicles
The modern British Class 390 , called Pendolino, is used on most routes . British Class 221 , known as SuperVoyager , is also used on the routes that end in Wales and Scotland and operate on the West Coast Main Line .
In addition, Virgin Trains has a push-pull train consisting of 9 Mark 3 passenger cars, a Class 82 control car and a Class 90 locomotive. This train was extensively redesigned at Wabtec in Doncaster in 2009 and equipped with new seats, sockets and Wi-Fi, among other things. The interior was brought up to the Pendolinos stand, so that the train was nicknamed “Pretendolino”.
| Existing vehicles | ||||||
| model series | image | Type | V / max |
passenger cars |
number | Construction year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| British class 221 |
|
Railcar ( diesel ) | 200 km / h | 5 | 20th | 2001-2002 |
| British class 390 |
|
Railcar ( electric ) | 200 km / h | 9 | 21st | 2001-2004 |
| 11 | 35 | 2009–2012 | ||||
Route network
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Virgin Trains' route network is grouped into six routes departing from London and Birmingham :
- Route A from London Euston via Birmingham New Street to Edinburgh Waverly or Glasgow Central
- Route B from London Euston to Birmingham New Street
- Route C from London Euston or Birmingham New Street via Chester to Holyhead or Wrexham
- Route D from London Euston via Rugby to Liverpool Lime Street
- Route E from London Euston via Stoke-on-Trent or Crewe to Manchester Piccadilly
- Route F from London Euston via Lancaster to Glasgow Central
Individual evidence
- ^ Guardian.co.uk - Transport minister Philip Hammond delays Virgin Trains' west coast sale May 15, 2011
- ↑ eurailpress.de - Great Britain: First West Coast wins InterCity West Coast Franchise ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 20th August 2012
- ↑ bbc.co.uk - Virgin to run West Coast route 'for at least nine months' (English) October 15, 2012
- ↑ Railway Magazine: East Coast's Red Revolution , March 3, 2015 ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on May 15, 2015
- ↑ a b virgintrains.co.uk - Our routes & stations (English) accessed on March 24, 2012
Web links
- Website of Virgin Trains (English)