VIRGIN TRAINS” chief proponent (and chairman) Sir Richard Branson was
on hand last week to endorse Virgin CrossCountry to retain the
franchise. The founder of the Virgin Group used the opportunity to
unveil plans to run trains every 20 minutes between Manchester and
London by 2008, the highest frequency anywhere in the world for a
journey of more than 200 miles on a route used by more than one
operator. Three services an hour will run between Birmingham and
London under plans being finalised with Government and Network Rail.
He noted that passenger numbers on Virgin West Coast have increased
from 13.6m 1997/98 to 18.7m in 2005/6, while numbers on Virgin
CrossCountry have grown from 12.6m to 20.4m over the same period. The
biggest growth in passenger numbers on Virgin West Coast has been on
the Manchester ” London route where rail has taken a majority of the
rail-air market. From having just one-third of the rail-air market
before launching a half-hourly timetable, Virgin West Coast now has
nearly two-thirds of the market. Since the new timetable was launched
in September 2004, the number of rail journeys has increased 105%
whilst air travel between the two cities has declined according to CAA
figures.
http://www.virgintrains.co.uk