Press release -
Virgin Trains boosts services to Manchester for festive period
Virgin Trains has increased its weekend services from Macclesfield to Manchester for customers wanting to enjoy the city’s festivities in the run up to Christmas.
Every Saturday until Christmas selected departures* from London Euston will call additionally at Macclesfield – an increase of nearly 50%.
On a typical Saturday, Virgin Trains operates 14 services from Macclesfield to Manchester Piccadilly, which equates to one train per hour. The additional services will benefit Macclesfield with two services per hour between 11am and 5pm, offering those wanting to experience the Markets or do some Christmas shopping more options on Virgin Trains for their journey to Manchester.
Virgin Trains are now fully gearing up for Christmas with the recent launch of their Turkey and Bacon Sandwich and Festive Hummus and Pomegranate salad wrap in the onboard shop, as well as making festive film, It’s A Wonderful Life, available on BEAM – Virgin’s onboard entertainment portal.
Gaynor Stewart, General Manager at Virgin Trains, said: “Manchester is a very popular destination on our route and each year more people are making the journey to the city to get into the festive spirit. At Macclesfield our team recognised the opportunity for additional services and we’re pleased to be delivering these by serving the town more frequently in the lead up to Christmas, offering a better experience for people making the short train ride to enjoy festivities in Manchester.”
Sheona Southern, Managing Director at Marketing Manchester, said: “Manchester is an incredibly popular Christmas destination and continues to attract an increasing number of visitors every year with the biggest Christmas Markets in the UK. Excellent transport links make Manchester a great place to visit for a day trip or weekend break, and it is fantastic to see Virgin Trains operating extra services from Macclesfield, allowing more people from across Greater Manchester and beyond the opportunity to come and explore the city and its wonderful festive events.”
Fares for journeys between Macclesfield and Manchester with Virgin Trains start from £7.60 for an Off-Peak day return.
For more information about Christmas in Manchester, visit: here
Topics
- Art, Culture, Entertainment
About Virgin Trains
Stagecoach and Virgin are working in partnership to operate the West Coast inter-city route under the Virgin Trains brand, revolutionising travel on one of the UK’s key rail arteries.
The network connects some of the nation’s most iconic destinations including Glasgow, Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester 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 ahead of other long-distance rail franchise operators in the National Rail Passenger Survey (NRPS) commissioned by industry watchdog, Transport Focus.
Virgin Trains has a proud record of challenging the status quo - from introducing tilting Pendolino trains, to a pioneering automated delay repay scheme, introducing the industry-leading onboard entertainment streaming service, BEAM, and becoming the first franchised rail operator to offer m-Tickets for all ticket types.
Virgin Trains operated the East Coast route between March 1, 2015 and June 24, 2018. In that time, we invested £75m to create a more personalised travel experience, including over £40m in the existing fleet. Customers have benefitted 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.
Working together, the partnership railway of the public and private sectors has published a long-term plan, called In Partnership for Britain’s Prosperity, to change and improve Britain’s railway. The plan will secure almost £85bn of additional economic benefits to the country whilst enabling further investment and improvement, and contains four commitments which will see rail companies: strengthen our economic contribution to the country; improve customers’ satisfaction; boost the communities we serve; and, create more and better jobs in rail. For more information go to Britain Runs on Rail.
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