Virgin Trains has today confirmed that it will continue to provide additional seats on its Birmingham-Scotland and London-North Wales routes, beyond the end of the Summer period.
Longer trains with more carriages will continue to run between Edinburgh and Birmingham, between Glasgow and Birmingham and between London Euston and North Wales from September 12th providing over 17,000 extra seats a week.
The number of seats provided each week will increase by almost 12,000 on the Birmingham-Scotland route and by 2,560 on the London-North Wales route. More than 5,100 seats a week will be provided on the Chester-London route.
“More people than ever are travelling on our trains. Passenger numbers have doubled in six years, so the extra seats are very welcome to help cope with demand. We are able to do this following the entry into service of an additional Pendolino train this summer” said Chris Gibb, Virgin Trains Chief Operating Officer.
Longer trains between Scotland and the West Midlands through Cumbria, Lancashire and Cheshire will operate seven days a week.
The number of seats on affected trains will increase from 256 to either 439 or 512 depending on the train.
The busiest trains between London Euston and Holyhead will double in length from 256 to 512 seats on Mondays to Fridays.
The recent delivery of an additional Pendolino train allows Virgin to provide even more seats to and from Scotland this summer than they have done in recent years.
Whilst two Voyager driving cars sit mothballed at Crewe station. How about ordering 1 or even 2 extra coaches for each Voyager set, and a set of 4 or 5 coaches to bring the mothballed Voyager back into use.
Ive never come across an industry with such a shortsighted attitude to investment as rail. Rail growth is surging yet we’ve got train manufacturers going bust and lines creaking at the seams