Virgin plan regular Euston service

Apr 24 2006 By Ben Hurst, Birmingham Mail

PLANS for trains every 20 minutes between Birmingham and London Euston were announced today by Sir Richard Branson.

The news comes as a boost to passengers travelling on overcrowded West Coast Main Line services.

The 20-minute frequency - up from two trains an hour - will be introduced in 2008. The company also said it hoped that it could raise the speed of its tilting Pendolino trains from 125mph to 135mph.

In recent years Virgin has run both its West Coast and CrossCountry franchises on a year-by-year contract.

Last October, the Department for Transport said it would be re-letting a reconstituted CrossCountry franchise, which is based at Birmingham New Street, in autumn 2007.

Virgin had originally been given the franchise until 2012, and Sir Richard said today that Virgin intended to bid for CrossCountry.

"There were many cynics who just laughed at our plans when we launched the franchises," he said. "They said it could never be done. But we persevered ,and the Virgin rail operation of today is a shining example of what can be achieved."

Virgin, which operates more than 50 Pendolinos, has seen passengers rise on West Coast from 15.4 million in 1998-99 to 18.7 million in 2005-06, while over the same period CrossCountry passengers have risen from 13.6 million to 20.4 million.

On the CrossCountry line, passengers are up nine per cent to 20 million.

Virgin Trains chief executive Tony Collins said: "We need to look now at more Pendolino trains and more carriages, and improving station parking, otherwise we will inhibit growth. We have trains that can travel at 140mph. We are talking with Network Rail about running at 135mph from 2008."

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