Passengers travelling on Virgin Trains during the Easter period can expect significant disruption as engineering work to upgrade the West Coast Main Line takes place.
Designed to update the system in time for the December 2008 upgrade, Network Rail will carry out the improvements that should lead to faster and more frequent Virgin West Coast services.
Virgin Trains says that in the week before Easter, from 2-5 April, additional trains will supplement the standard weekday service, while ticket restrictions will be withdrawn on Maundy Thursday (5 April). Passengers are advised to either check with Virgin or Network Rail as many coach shuttle services will replace trains for part of their journeys, while train diversions will also take place. Work is expected to end on 10 April.
The rail operator also unveiled a new ”3.5m ($6.9m) advertising campaign, first shown to delegates at last week”s Institute of Travel Management (ITM) gathering in Edinburgh, highlighting the environmental advantages of using its Pendolino trains.
Virgin claims that the Pendolino services use 76% less CO2 than cars and aircraft, while at the same time returning 17% electricity back to the National Grid every time the driver brakes.
The company operates a fleet of 78 Pendolino trains on its West Coast services, but is looking to add further carriages. ”We are in discussion with the Department for Transport to possibly lengthen each Pendolino by two coaches,” a Virgin Trains spokesman told ABTN, ”and we would obviously like that to be within the next year or so as we anticipate growth.”
Virgin is determinedly taking on the airlines for UK domestic routes, claiming 16% and 12% passenger growth between London and Manchester/Liverpool respectively. It also says that air travel from the capital to the same routes has fallen by 4% and 30% in each case.