Press release -

Virgin Trains adds extra service for Wembley–bound Lincoln City FC fans

Virgin Trains has added an extra service to London to help fans of Lincoln City Football Club enjoy a day out at the final of the Checkatrade Trophy.

The Imps will be playing at Wembley stadium for the first time in their 133-year history on the 8th of April. The game against Shrewsbury Town, kicks off at 3pm. To date, over 25,000 tickets have been sold to Imps supporters, which already amounts to the highest number of Lincoln City fans recorded at one match.

Virgin Trains will operate an additional direct service to London King’s Cross, departing from Lincoln at 09h52 and calling at Newark at 10h18 where it will also pick up Wembley-bound fans. The service is scheduled to arrive into the capital at 11h35. There are currently over 300 seats still available on the service starting at £30. The usual 19h08 return train will also still be running for fans to get home.

Commercial Director for Lincoln City FC, Ritchie Bates, said: "We are proud to work with Virgin Trains to be able to offer an additional service for supporters to get to Wembley for the Checkatrade Trophy Final. This additional train provided by Virgin trains will help ensure all our supporters have the means to attend the club's historic first visit to Wembley Stadium in April and this just aligns with the community spirit we have at the club. We look forward to working with Virgin Trains in further partnership over the coming months ahead of the increased timetable to London in May 2019."

David Horne, Managing Director for Virgin Trains on the east coast said: “We are pleased to be putting on additional services for Imp fans and to be able to support on what will no doubt be a special day for them. We wish the Lincoln City football team the best of luck and look forward to working with the football club as we make plans to launch our direct Azuma services from Lincoln next year.”

Tickets can be booked via Virgin Trains’ website: www.virgintrainseastcoast.com

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About Virgin Trains

Stagecoach and Virgin are working in partnership to operate the East Coast and West Coast inter-city routes under the Virgin Trains brand. Together, they are on track to revolutionise rail travel across the UK.

The combined network connects some of the nation’s most iconic destinations including Glasgow, Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds, York and London.

Virgin Trains is committed to delivering a high speed, high frequency service, offering shorter journey times, more comfortable travel and excellent customer service. Customers consistently rate Virgin Trains as one of the top long-distance rail franchise operators in the National Rail Passenger Survey (NRPS) commissioned by industry watchdog, Transport Focus.

On the East Coast route, £140m is being invested to create a more personalised travel experience. We have already invested over £40m in our existing fleet, including £21m refurbishing interiors and £16m towards improving the engines of our trains. Customers can now benefit from 48 additional services between Edinburgh and London every week, and an extra 22 Saturday services between Leeds and London – a total of 1.74 million additional seats since May 2015. 2018 will see the introduction of completely new Azuma trains being built in the UK by Hitachi.

The West Coast route has a proud record of challenging the status quo - from introducing tilting Pendolino trains, to a pioneering automated delay repay scheme and becoming the first franchised rail operator to offer m-Tickets for all ticket types.

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