Press release -
Virgin Trains and Vogue travel in style
Virgin Trains, as official Travel Partner to Vogue Fashion’s Night Out, will be taking Vogue Editors and VIPs, including designers Christopher Kane, Jonathan Saunders and Princess Julia to Manchester today (10 October 2013) as they head North to this year’s event. Fashion’s Night Out is Vogue’s global celebration of shopping and fashion and, this year, Manchester is hosting it for the first time. As innovative companies with powerful brands, Virgin and Vogue make the perfect partners in this celebration of style and luxury.
Vogue Editor Alexandra Shulman will be doing two interviews on board Virgin Trains: the first is a question and answer session with Twitter fans and the second is an extra-special interview with a member of the Virgin Trains Red Track team. Red Track is Virgin Trains’ graduate recruitment programme which offers undergraduates the chance to gain a Business Management degree whilst working for Virgin Trains.
Manchester has become a key destination for high-end fashion and luxury in the past few years and Virgin Trains, as a proud stakeholder of this enterprising and innovative city, is excited to be Vogue’s Official Travel Partner for this special occasion.
Why not travel to the event in Virgin First Class? With complimentary food and drinks, on board wi-fi and, if desired, a newspaper, you’ll be sure to feel looked after. Trains depart from London three times an hour and, with a journey time of just over two hours, you will arrive before you can say Manolos, feeling relaxed and refreshed-ready for an evening of champagne pampering and shopping.
About the event
There’s loads on offer at this year’s event. You can get your nails painted with an Essie manicure at Mulberry in Spinningfields or your hair done by Trevor Sorbie whilst you shop in Reiss. Then run to Kurt Geiger’s to enter the in-store competition to win a year’s supply of shoes! If you fancy catching the stars of the future in action, grab a frontrow seat at Salford University’s salon show and make sure you don’t miss Bip Ling on the decks in UGG Australia’s store. For the culture vultures out there, a trip to Manchester Art Gallery should be on the cards as it hosts a special exhibition of Costumes Through the Ages, and listen to the talk What is Fashion - and why does it matter?
Topics
- Art, Culture, Entertainment
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Virgin Trains has revolutionised
rail travel by creating a high speed, high frequency service that has cut
journey times and made rail journeys more comfortable. It has operated the West
Coast passenger train franchise since 1997, serving key UK cities including
London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Preston and Glasgow.
Virgin Trains is the brand name of Virgin Rail Group (VRG), which is owned 51 percent by Virgin Group and 49 percent by Stagecoach. The Department for Transport (DfT) has awarded VRG a franchise contract, which started on 9 December 2012 and will run for up to 23 months. The DfT announced on 26 March 2013 a programme for letting future franchises, with the long-term West Coast franchise expected to start in April 2017.
Virgin Trains has been recognised in numerous awards. In September 2012 Business Traveller magazine readers voted the company the Best UK Domestic Rail Operator for the sixth year running. In 2011 the company was named Best Rail Operator in the Group Leisure Awards (which it also won in 2009 and 2010). In 2011 Virgin Trains won the British Quality Foundation's Achievement Award for Customer Satisfaction.
Customers consistently rate the company the top long-distance rail franchise operator, as measured by the National Passenger Survey (NPS) run by industry watchdog Passenger Focus. In the most recent NPS (Spring 2013) overall satisfaction was 92%, equalling our best ever score from the previous survey (Autumn 2012).
Virgin Trains first achieved Investors In People accreditation in 2007 and this was renewed in 2010; the IIP Gold award was achieved in 2011. In May 2013 Virgin Trains renewed it accreditation against the criteria of the European Foundation for Quality Management's (EFQM) Excellence Model, which it originally achieved in May 2011 The company’s Learning and Development team won a National Training Awards 2011 West Midlands award for its Coaching Culture programme.
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