Press release -
Virgin Trains offers a flavour of the “MarmaLake” District
- Virgin Trains zests up footage of Lake District to celebrate Marmalade Festival & Awards
Virgin Trains has created a unique guide to the “MarmaLake” District to celebrate the World’s Original Marmalade Festival & Awards, which take place in Penrith this weekend.
Footage showing the beautiful scenery of the Lake District has been zested up by Virgin Trains and released alongside five interesting facts to give it a-peel to marmalade fans.
Featuring Lake Windermere and Eskdale, the video gives a taste of the Lake District, which last year was awarded UNESCO World Heritage Site status, and a glimpse into the views experienced on one of the most scenic train routes on the west coast.
Serving Oxenholme and Penrith - gateways to the Lake District – the route connects the home of the Marmalade Festival & Awards, Dalemain, with London – where the winning marmalade will be available to buy in Fortnum & Mason.
Michael Stewart, General Manager at Virgin Trains on the west coast, said: “At Virgin Trains we're proud to serve the MarmaLake District and this guide gives a taste of what the region has to offer. The stunning scenery can be enjoyed when taking the train - whether it's travelling to the home of the Marmalade Festival and Awards at Penrith, exploring the Lake District for the weekend, or heading to Fortnum & Mason in London to buy this year's winning marmalade."
Managing Director of Cumbria Tourism, Gill Haigh, said: “The World’s Original Marmalade Festival is a special, quirky, fun and uniquely Cumbrian event. Combined with Penrith Goes Orange, it means people can enjoy a truly ‘marmalade mad’ weekend. It’s also another great example of the world-class programme of events lined up for 2018 across the county, spanning food and drink, culture and adventure-based festivals and events. The sheer depth and diversity of Cumbria’s what’s on calendar over the coming months means there genuinely is something for everyone travelling to the home of not one but two World Heritage Sites!”
If you want to journey through the MarmaLake District with the 90-second video, visit:
https://virgintrains.box.com/s/q10qzzinvhxajt8xqcn4vawg0khudwg2
ENDS
Topics
- Tourism
Categories
- fun stuff
- routes & stations
- regional news
- west coast
Notes to Editors
Virgin Trains’ Guide to the MarmaLake District
- 1.Situated in the North of the MarmaLake District, Penrith is 280 miles from London Euston – the equivalent to over six million jars of marmalade lined up*
- 2.Journeying to the Lake District with Virgin Trains takes less time than making marmalade
- 3.It would take 7,824 jars of marmalade to reach the highest mountain in England – Scafell Pike**
- 4.Zesting up Lake Windermere, which holds 300 billion litres of water, would require 882 billion jars of marmalade***
- 5.Lake Windermere is England’s longest lake at 10.5 miles – the equivalent to 2,397 jars of marmalade*
*based on marmalade jar having a width of 7.5cm
**based on marmalade jar having a height of 12.5cm
***based on marmalade jar having a capacity of 340ml
On a typical weekday Virgin Trains operates 30 services from Oxenholme and Penrith to London Euston.
If you want to experience the full journey to the Lake District in real-time, you can log onto BEAM, Virgin Trains’ revolutionary on-board entertainment service, next time you’re on-board.
Dalemain Marmalade Festival & Awards
These quirky awards were founded in 2005 by Jane Hasell-McCosh with the initial idea of preserving, growing and widening one of the most British of customs – making marmalade. They have gone on to generate a following far beyond Jane’s wildest expectations and have humour and a life of their own, inspiring people from all over the world to get involved.
The Awards are centred on Dalemain Mansion; a Georgian stately home lived in by the same family for over 300 years, which also happens to hold a very rich archive of Marmalade recipes.
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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