Press release -
Virgin Trains invests £1.2M in Newark Northgate station
Virgin Trains has today revealed a new forecourt at Newark Northgate which represents the latest stage of a £1.2M project to improve the station. Robert Jenrick, MP for Newark and David Horne, Managing Director for Virgin Trains on the east coast, revealed the plaque marking the opening of the enhanced station front.
Virgin Trains, which operates Newark station on its east coast route, has delivered a series of upgrades, improving access and easing congestion at the station during peak hours. Latest changes include introducing a new bus stop, relocating the entrance to the NCP cark park, short stay car park and moving the taxi rank to alleviate traffic at the station and allow better pedestrian access.
The train operator has also spent over half a million pounds on WiFi, updating the waiting room and the new Cycle Hub since taking over the franchise. Initial feedback has been positive as customers begin to use the new facilities.
This is part of Virgin Trains' £140M investment into the east coast franchise helping to provide a boost to local economies and increasing customer satisfaction.
Robert Jenrick, MP for Newark said: "Newark Northgate and the access it gives local people and businesses to the rest of the UK is at the heart of our local economy. I’m delighted it has been renovated and improved. The new look to the forecourt is a great improvement and makes the station more convenient and accessible for many travelers. I’ve already heard many positive comments and hope it will lead to more passengers using Northgate."
David Horne, Managing Director for Virgin Trains on the east coast said: "We're delighted with the revamped station front and proud of the time and money spent making journeys better. Newark Northgate is a very busy station and that's why we’ve invested £1.2M into improving customer facilities. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and we would like to thank our customers for remaining patient during the works."
Topics
- Art, Culture, Entertainment
Categories
- east coast
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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