Virgin Trains

Virgin Trains (legal name West Coast Trains Limited) is a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Virgin (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.

History

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.