Virgin West Coast
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| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Franchise(s) |
InterCity West Coast 9 March 1997 – 31 March 2019 |
| Main route(s) |
London - Scotland London - North West London - West Midlands London - Chester |
| Other route(s) |
London - Holyhead London - Shrewsbury London - Wrexham London - Blackpool |
| Fleet size | 56 Class 390 Pendolino sets 20 Class 221 Super Voyager sets |
| Stations called at | 42 |
| Stations operated | 17 |
| National Rail abbreviation | VT |
| Parent company | Virgin Rail Group, which is owned by both Virgin (51%) and Stagecoach (49%) |
| Website | www.virgintrains.co.uk |
Virgin Trains (legal name West Coast Trains Limited) is a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Virgin Rail Group (51%) and Stagecoach (49%) that has operated the InterCity West Coast franchise since 9 March 1997. Virgin Trains operates long-distance passenger services on the West Coast Main Line between London, West Midlands, North West England, North Wales and Scotland. The service connects six of the UK's largest cities; London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow and Edinburgh, which have a combined metropolitan population of over 18 million people.
The Virgin Trains brand has also been used on the legally and operationally separate Virgin Trains East Coast since 1 March 2015, and previously on Virgin CrossCountry, which operated between 1997 and 2007. Virgin has around 3,400 employees.
Virgin Rail Group was awarded the InterCity West Coast franchise in January 1997 after beating Sea Containers and Stagecoach with operations commencing on 9 March 1997. In October 1998 Virgin Group sold 49% of the shares in Virgin Rail Group to Stagecoach.
When Virgin won the franchise, Railtrack was to upgrade the West Coast Main Line to allow tilting trains to operate at 140 mph by 2005. In the wake of the collapse of Railtrack and the inability of Network Rail to deliver on the 140 mph West Coast Main Line upgrade, both the Virgin CrossCountry and Virgin Trains West Coast franchises were suspended in favour of management contracts in July 2002. Due to costs having blown out from £2.5 billion to £10 billion there were cutbacks to the upgrade and the top speed reduced to 125 mph.
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