Press release -
VIRGIN TRAINS EAST COAST REACHES LANDMARK 100th DAY
8 June 2015
VIRGIN TRAINS EAST COAST REACHES LANDMARK 100th DAY
Virgin Trains East Coast, today reached its landmark 100th day operating long distance cross border rail services on the East Coast Main Line.
Since its launch on 1 March 2015, Virgin Trains East Coast has operated 13,834 services and carried more than 4.3 million customers.
The company has lots of exciting plans for the future, including new ‘Super Express’ trains from 2018, new services from Sunderland in December 2015, and £140m of investment to improve the customer experience.
David Horne, Managing Director at Virgin Trains East Coast, said:
“It only seems a few weeks ago since we launched our new company at King’s Cross station, but time has certainly flown by. We’ve embarked on an amazing journey to transform the customer experience and have already achieved an enormous amount, with much still to do. We’re looking forward to launching many more new initiatives for our customers over the coming months.”
Highlights of our first 100 days
- Operated 13,834 trains
- Our drivers have driven our trains 3,647,008 miles
- Sold 454,000 cups of tea and coffee
- Transported over 4.3 million customer
- Cut the price of our Standard Anytime tickets to/from London by 10%
- Recruited over 60 new staff
- Responded to over 21,000 tweets on Twitter
- Sold 145,000 sandwiches
- On-board staff have served 147,000 breakfasts
- King’s Cross station staff have dispatched 6,488 trains
- Seen 7,912 more followers on Twitter
- Launched 2new menus
- Seen numerous celebrities and famous people travel with us including, the Prime Minister, world famous actor Benedict Cumberbatch and former X Factor Judge Nicole Scherzinger
- Raised £17,500 for local charities and supported a very special Royal Navy and Royal Marines fundraising mission
- Leeds station staff have dispatched 2,782 trains
- Re-livered 5 electric trains and just started the 1st HST train set
- We’ve even painted a Baron for the Magna Carta 800 celebrations
-ENDS-
Topics
- Public Transport
Categories
- east coast
- business news
Regions
- England
Contact the Virgin Trains East Coast Press Office: 0116 366 3988 during office hours (09.00 - 17.30 Mon-Fri). Outside these times, and for urgent media enquiries only, please call 08700 005151 and ask for the duty Virgin Trains East Coast press officer to be paged.
Virgin Trains East Coast is the brand name of InterCity Railways Ltd (ICR), which is owned by Stagecoach Group (90%) and Virgin Group (10%). Virgin Trains East Coast began operating services on the East Coast Main Line on Sunday 1 March 2015, serving key UK cities including London, Peterborough, Doncaster, Leeds, York, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness. In November 2014 the Department for Transport awarded ICR a new franchise until at least 31 March 2023.
Virgin Trains East Coast is committed to delivering a high speed, high quality service with new services, faster and more frequent journeys, more comfortable travel and excellent customer service. More than £140m is to be invested in delivering improved service and a more personalised travel experience for customers.
Visit the Virgin Trains East Coast Media Centre at: http://www.virgintrainseastcoast.com/media-centre for the latest news and images.
STAGECOACH GROUP
• Stagecoach Group is a leading international public transport group, with extensive operations in the UK, mainland Europe, the United States and Canada. The Group employs around 38,000 people, and operates bus, coach, train, and tram services.
• Stagecoach is one of the UK’s biggest bus and coach operators with around 8,300 buses and coaches. Around 2.8 million passenger journeys are made on Stagecoach's buses every day on a network stretching from south-west England to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. The Group’s business includes major city bus operations in London, Liverpool, Newcastle, Hull, Manchester, Oxford, Sheffield and Cambridge. Low-cost coach service, megabus.com, operates a network of inter-city services across the UK and continental Europe.
• Stagecoach is a major UK rail operator, running the South West Trains, Island Line and East Midlands Trains networks. It is also the majority shareholder (90%) in the new Virgin Trains East Coast franchise and has a 49% shareholding in Virgin Rail Group, which operates the West Coast rail franchise.
• Stagecoach also operates the Supertram light rail network in Sheffield.
• In North America, Stagecoach operates around 2,400 buses and coaches in the United States and Canada. Megabus.com links around 130 key locations in North America. Stagecoach is also involved in operating commuter, transit, airport express services, contracted, charter and sightseeing services.
