Virgin Trains
In 1996 Virgin Trains won the CrossCountry and West Coast franchises and, the following year, the famous Virgin flair hit the railways. A truly national network, Virgin Trains covers vast areas of Britain.
London Euston is the gateway to the 401 mile-long West Coast Main Line, with services to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Preston, North Wales and Glasgow.
Virgin CrossCountry operates a complex network of routes radiating from Birmingham, and serving all major towns and cities from Aberdeen to Penzance and Glasgow to Brighton. Over 20 million customers were carried on Virgin CrossCountry in 2005, up from 10.4 million in 1994. The longest journey is the 704 miles covered by trains from Penzance to Dundee, which is also the longest direct train journey in Great Britain.
6 January 1997 Virgin Trains starts the CrossCountry franchise and promises to replace the existing fleet with new Voyager and Super Voyager trains
9 March 1997 Virgin Trains starts the West Coast franchise
23 February 1999 Sir Richard Branson launches www.thetrainline.com
6 October 2000 FastTicket machines introduced at Manchester Piccadilly
5 June 2001 First run of a Voyager train in UK with Sir Richard Branson
9 July 2001 Pendolino launched at Old Dalby Test Track running at over 100mph and tilting. Massive launch with media and industry opinion formers
12 April 2002 First Super Voyager enters traffic between Birmingham and Brighton
30 April 2002 First Pendolino into London Euston launched by Sir Richard Branson. Customers invited to view the „shape of travel to come“
23 July 2002 First Pendolino enters service following launch by Sir Richard of Birmingham International – Manchester Piccadilly „Commonwealth Games“ service.
September 2002 Operation Princess sees the launch of a new high frequency CrossCountry timetable at an event at the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham.
27 January 2003 Sir Richard joins passengers as Pendolinos start running between Manchester and London Euston
30 May 2003 Further Pendolino services introduced on Manchester – London Euston and Wolverhampton – London Euston services
11 August 2003 First Pendolino in service between Preston and London Euston
17 August 2003 Voyagers begin operating at 125mph between Birmingham and Derby on completion of £220m CrossCountry route upgrade.
20 October 2003 Sir Richard launches Liverpool Pendolino service
5 January 2004 Pendolino service starts from Glasgow to London Euston
20 September 2004 Red Revolution – the Prime Minister launches the UK’s first-ever 125 mph tilting train timetable at London Euston station.
25 September 2005 Three, seven and 14 day booking deadlines scrapped for advance booking tickets. Now available until up to 1800 the day before travel
December 2005 CrossCountry carries 20 million passengers in a year for the first time
April 2006 Sir Richard Branson announces his intention to pre-qualify for the new CrossCountry franchise. He also announces plans to introduce trains every 20 minutes between Manchester and London Euston, and Birmingham and London Euston.
January 2007 We're ten! Seems like just yesterday when we acquired the West Coast and CrossCountry franchises, yet in the past ten years we've accomplished a lot. Click here to find out more about our first ten years.