Press release -
Eco-friendly car hire for Lakes rail visitors
Visitors heading to the South and Central Lakes from around the UK can now enjoy an easy, eco-friendly way to explore the region, following the arrival of low-carbon car hire at Oxenholme Railway Station.
Ideal for families, a new four-seater VW Up! has been introduced to Oxenholme, the Lake District, thanks to a partnership between the GoLakes Travel Programme, Virgin Trains and Co-Wheels.
Visitors can hire the VW Up! by signing up with Co-Wheels online just a few days before their visit. This special ‘pay as you drive’ vehicle will then give visitors the flexibility to reach the border of the Lake District National Park by train, before jumping into this conveniently-placed vehicle to enjoy a hassle-free journey to their final destination in the Lake District.
The new VW Up! is available to rent for slots of one hour up to several days at a time and is the latest addition to a small fleet of electric and low-carbon cars which took to the roads of the Lake District earlier this summer. It’s all part of GoLakes Travel’s plans to bring together more eco-friendly modes of transport and give visitors new ways to experience and explore the iconic landscape of mountains, lakes and countryside.
Claire Maclaine, Programme Manager for the GoLakes Travel Programme says, “Travelling to the Lake District by train is a great way to get here but often visitors feel that they need a car to get around once they have arrived. The pay-as-you-drive car at Oxenholme gives them the choice of using a low-carbon car for their onward journeys and is an important addition to the CoWheels fleet.”
Michael Byrne, Station Manager at Oxenholme for Virgin Trains, says, “Virgin Trains has a big role to play in supporting tourism growth in the Lake District by providing green, sustainable transport links. Thanks to this fantastic partnership our passengers can now get into the heart of the Lakes quickly and conveniently from as far as Scotland and London, knowing that there is a hassle-free connection that will get them all the way to their hotel or B&B door. With a massive boost in the capacity of our services to and from Oxenholme this December, this is another great addition to the Virgin Trains offer.”
Visitors wanting to hire the VW Up! can sign up with Co-Wheels online ahead of their visit. They will then receive their own smart card which gives them direct access to their chosen car in the CoWheels national fleet.
For more information, see: www.golakes.co.uk/travel/by-Car.aspx or www.co-wheels.org.uk/go-lakes-travel.
For more information, please contact: Heather Sewell, 01539 825002 / 07795 487003 / hsewell@cumbriatourism.org
Topics
- Art, Culture, Entertainment
Visit our Media Room website for the latest news, press releases and the company factsheet. To receive our content live, as and when we publish it, you can sign up to follow us. Go to Follow Virgin Trains and click on ‘Create account’. You can view stakeholder news in the latest edition of The Red Letter at virgintrains.newsweaver.com/newsletter.
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 October 2013 Business Traveller magazine readers voted the company the Best UK Domestic Rail Operator for the seventh 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 and again in October 2013. In May 2013 Virgin Trains renewed its 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.
For more information about Virgin Trains visit the Virgin Trains' website or the Media Room website.