Virgin Trains to provide extra seats to meet increased demand from frustrated air passengers on Tuesday 18 May

Virgin Trains will provide nearly 5000 extra seats on Tuesday 18 May for airline passengers facing continuing uncertainty over airspace closures due to volcanic ash clouds.

The disruption caused during and after airspace closures has seen huge increases in demand for trains. During these periods Virgin Trains has seen a three-fold increase in demand for services London – Scotland services on top of exceptional growth experienced through the last year. There has been an eight-fold increase on London – Holyhead services.

Virgin Trains has now set up a mechanism for quickly uplifting services in response to ash cloud warnings. Most of tomorrow’s additional capacity will be on Anglo Scottish services on two routes – Birmingham to Glasgow and Edinburgh and Euston to Glasgow. There will also be longer trains on the line between Euston and Holyhead to connect with ferries to Dublin.

For details of times and fares and for booking tickets visit virgintrains.com or any Virgin Trains ticket office.

A decision on the level of service to be run later in the week will be made in the light of further updated forecasts from the Met Office.