Press release -
Virgin Trains welcomes ‘All The Stations’ couple on their railway journey
Today Virgin Trains welcomed a couple at Carlisle, who are travelling to all railway stations in Britain for a project entitled ‘All The Stations’, which sees them visit 2,563 stations over 14 weeks.
Geoff and Vicki, who are on day 97 of their ‘All The Stations’ adventure, passed through Carlisle on their journey to Stranraer; providing them with a glimpse of the new roof – a project by Network Rail in partnership with Virgin Trains to transform the roof of Carlisle station.
Members of the Virgin Trains Station Team at Carlisle presented the couple with a 1930s-style railway poster, featuring a Pendolino and congratulatory message, specially designed by Nicky Thompson from Lemondrop Creative, a design studio in Chester.
Inspired by Geoff and Vicki’s adventure, Virgin Trains approached Nicky to design a railway poster to celebrate their achievement. Nicky recently created 14 iconic railway posters, influenced by railway poster artist, Frank Henry Mason, depicting destinations along the Mid Cheshire line (Chester – Manchester Piccadilly) for Mid Cheshire Community Rail Partnership’s ‘Marvellous Days Out’ campaign, which aims to encourage people to take the train to visit destinations local to the Mid Cheshire line.
Michael Byrne, Virgin Trains Station Manager at Carlisle, said: "At Virgin Trains we have been following Geoff and Vicki's adventure, since they set off in May. We love their story and wanted to celebrate their amazing journey with a keepsake that captures the essence of their adventure - enjoying days out by train. We're proud to welcome Geoff and Vicki to our beautiful station - the gateway to Carlisle, where we've seen a record number of journeys between the Cumbrian city and London, highlighting that train travel is more popular than ever, as we celebrate our 20th birthday. We wish them both all the best continuing their adventure to all stations across Britain."
For others wanting to visit Carlisle station like Geoff and Vicki, Virgin Trains runs 27 trains a day (on a typical weekday) between London Euston and Carlisle.
ENDS
Topics
- Transport
Categories
- west coast
- fun stuff
- regional news
- routes & stations
Notes to Editors
Earlier this year, Virgin Trains announced that 159,000 journeys were taken by train between Carlisle and London (1 April 2016 – 31 March 2017), setting a new record since Virgin Trains took over the West Coast Main Line in 1997.
More information can be found here: http://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/virgintrains/pressreleases/record-numbers-take-the-train-to-cumbria-according-to-virgin-trains-1930506
Virgin Trains is working in partnership with Network Rail to transform the roof at Carlisle station. The £14.5m investment involves replacing the glass panels and repainting the roof’s metal work.
All The Stations
More information about Geoff and Vicki’s ‘All The Stations’ project can be found here: http://allthestations.co.uk/
Marvellous Days Out
http://www.marvellousdaysout.org.uk/station/navigation-road/
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 the interiors and £16m towards improving the engines of our trains. Customers can now benefit from 42 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 2016. 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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