Virgin Trains UK. Are they the Best (TOC) Train Operating company? Pictures and Videos Taken from Crewe, Stafford, Oxenholme, Preston,Tamworth, Nuneaton and MORE! Here is a short clip on Virgin Trains. Enjoy! Description- Virgin Trains is a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Virgin Group (51%) and Stagecoach (49%) that has operated the InterCity West Coast franchise since 9 March 1997. Virgin Trains operate long-distance passenger services on the West Coast Main Line between Greater London, the West Midlands, North West England, North Wales and Scotland. The service connects the major cities of London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh and Glasgow which have a combined metropolitan population of over 18 million people. 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 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. Thanks For Watching and Reading. Any Questions or Comments feel free to Post them. Please Comment, Like, Share, Favourite and Subscribe!!

• published: 25 Aug 2013
• views: 8