Virgin Trains to offer more than 22,000 extra seats a week

More than 22,000 extra seats a week are to be introduced by Virgin Trains for summer holidaymakers.

Longer trains with more carriages will run between Edinburgh and Birmingham, between Glasgow and Birmingham and between London Euston and North Wales.
These improvements are in addition to an extra Glasgow/London train each way.

“More people than ever are travelling on our trains. Passenger numbers have doubled in six years, so the extra seats are very welcome to help cope with demand,” said Karen Hattie, the Virgin Trains General Manager for Scotland and Cumbria.

Longer trains between Scotland and the West Midlands through Cumbria, Lancashire and Cheshire will operate seven days a week from Saturday 16 July until Sunday 11 September. The number of seats on affected trains will increase from 256 to either 439 or 512 depending on the train. The busiest trains between London Euston and Holyhead will double in length from 256 to 512 seats on Mondays to Saturdays from 16 July until 10 September.

A new 0923 from Glasgow Central to London Euston will run daily Mondays to Fridays from 18 July to 9 September, calling at Carlisle, Lancaster, Preston, Wigan and Warrington, to relieve the busy 0940 Glasgow-London, which will call at Carlisle, Oxenholme Lake District and Preston. On the same days, the 1030 London Euston to Lancaster train will be extended to Oxenholme, Penrith, Carlisle and Glasgow to give an additional service for Cumbria and Scotland.

The recent delivery of an additional Pendolino train allows us to provide even more seats to and from Scotland this summer than we have done in recent years.