The Virgin Trains Story (2007-2019)
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- čas přidán 15. 04. 2023
- Virgin Trains was an iconic rail operator, and their last decade was just as exciting as their first. So, join me (and Louis!) as we explore the history of this most interesting of companies.
Discord: / discord
Credits:
Photography:
Oxyman, ditjebali azzabi, Steven Crozier, Lawrence Clift, ArtVandelay13, Gerryfosterraz, Virgin Trains East Coast, Richard Townshend and Hitachi Rail, CC BY-SA 3.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/b..., via Wikimedia Commons
Geof Sheppard, Didier Duforest, PeterSkuce, The ganymedian, Martin arrand 1965, Causton, JakeWilliams1998, Chris McKenna (Thryduulf) and Snazzyskips, CC BY-SA 4.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons
Martin Bodman
lee bristol, Aubrey Morandarte, Hugh Llewelyn, Sludge G, CC BY-SA 2.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons
Birmingham Live
Rail Accident Investigation Branch
El Pollock
BBC News
Seat 61
Stephen Craven
Spsmiler, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Alex Belfield
GO media
™/®Société nationale des chemins de fer français, designed by Carré Noir Agency, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Hull Live
FirstGroup, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Music:
Dover - The Westerlies
Speaking to an Avanti staff member on the shop. Says they miss Virgin and Avanti doesn’t care about staff or their suggestions etc only want to provide the bare minimum… good video love it
ball
First being first innit
Same BS in TPE as well
Virgin was under Stagecoach control, and there have been some reactions over their reign in the franchise.
Was it the same person that I spoke to a few months ago on the Pendolino back from Wolverhampton?!
She too said Virgin treated them better.
WorstGroup indeed.
Yep, Virgin were the only ones who seemed to really care about fulfilling the stated aims of rail privatisation.
Wish they’d gotten their full-speed Pendolino operation, and the ECML upgrades (funded from pre-crash credit I presume) sound really impressive. That would’ve been a great dividend to the rail network.
Everyone else (Arriva, Abelio, First, etc) just did the bare minimum. And you can’t really blame them either, given a lot of them are subsidiaries of other nationalised operators who’d rather use those profits to improve services back home.
That last one is an interesting point to me. In germany currently there are major talks about restructuring DB (in some quite stupid ways and some quite useful ways). But a big ish talking point has been thag they let their home services slack and instead focus too much on international expansion
I couldn't believe the folly in replacing the WCML franchise as they did. Virgin weren't perfect but a heck of a lot better than the current disaster.
It was more about punishing stagecoach over their pensions handling. But a corrupt government punishing them.
Even First Group isn't really necessarily better. I often wonder.
One of most baffling decisions ever made to take the WCML franchise off Virgin and not one well-received by many train users.
I personally also miss the XC service that as you pointed out used to be in Virgin's hands.
I think the biggest plus point about Sir Richard Branson and his Virgin Trains was that they cared.
I also remember Branson got dissed by 1 of my country's ministers because he was appealing against capital punishment for a drug mule, but the minister argued he didn't have a right to do so as the UK had also started the Opium War
I remember the newspaper tribute from the well-respected travel consultant Simon Calder and what he said was that Virgin had shown everyone else just how a train service should be operated.
Thank you for this video! I’m just a little too young to remember exactly what Virgin Trains was like, though I have vague memories, and I thoroughly enjoy seeing all the not-so-hidden Virgin easter eggs at stations and on trains.
This video made me feel like I was there, and brought back the vague feeling of Virgin having a revolutionary presence and loyalty. Thanks again :)
Amazing video! You make great content and todays upload is no exception, thanks for this amazing knowing more about virgin trains
Funnily enough, I too travelled on during the changeover - this was to Manchester just to see friends. It felt surreal seeing the goodbye messages here and there, especially seeing one on the side of a Pendolino destination board.
The next day? Just a name change, but the fun had yet to begin. At least I'm at the mercy of SWR instead of Avanti these days...
SWR also seems to be a step down from SWT, First seem to curse everything they touch…
@@GWVillager I dunno Lumo & Hull Trains seem to be doing OK now, although open acsess is a more difficult one. Passing the 180s to EMR is probably a blessing in disguise.
@@isaactimmins8959 Open access operators are mostly competeting with the franchised operators so therefore First is forced to actually go all in.
Great job with this 2 part story. Thanks.
Spot on for the comment about trolley service vs buffet bar, GWR are great when they have enough staff to run trains and the trolley service, but that is rare. The problem with all the franchise system was the government has forgotten that public transport is a public service and will never turn a profit. Subsudies will always be required and the old saying you get what you pay for is so true for transport, we the paying public are the ones paying for a substandard service. My old boss said never accept the lowest bid for a contract as they will always under deliver or completly fail to deliver.
Meanwhile my country reportedly chose the lowest bidder for 83% of land transport construction contracts, maybe as it's easier to justify given that the gov't can be more hawkish when it comes to saving money* but some contracts have run into problems e.g. contractor going bankrupt, train tunnels leaking water only a year after construction.
* Our education ministry once got rapped by our public prosecutor's annual gov't audit, for not choosing the lowest bidder when handing out contracts for cleaning services, but choosing the lowest bidder has been blamed for contributing to wage stagnation among cleaners
While I haven't rode any UK trains, as I'm in the United States, my parents has back in the late 90s and early 2000's (97-02) before I was born, when my parents got married, they, along with family on both sides rode up and down the UK Railway network, visiting landmarks and places they wanted to see. They traveled on Virgin Trains, Midland Mainline, and GNER for intercity high-speed travel. I asked them which one did they like the most and all of them said Virgin Trains, the comfort, and the care that VT staff had over MM and GNER was clear as day. My aunt also found one of the train destination cards from a trip from London to Wolverhampton. (VTWC 124 if anyone is wondering)
Interesting, that time would have still been using the old loco hauled stock.
@@GWVillager for sure, my dad talked about how they needed to open the window and reach for the handle outside. Something that isnt really heard of here in the US even on the older coaches (the reaching out a window to open the door), if I had to guess it was a Mk2 coach due to the relitive short distance, but I dont think I will ever get a definitive answer as it was at least 20 years ago.
@@Snivy_Films VTWC 124 would have been Mk3s most likely, probably with a Class 90 or 87 hauling. Slam doors were common in the UK right up to 2019, with the withdrawal of the HST stock, and the refurbishment of any remaining sets. However, there is still one regular slam door service, the Mk3 operated Night Riviera sleeper from London Paddington to Penzance, run by GWR. It's quite a service, very luxurious despite the old trains.
I too travelled on the last day that Virgin trains operated (Penrith to Birmingham and back). I've kept my free chocolate as a memento.
Ha yes! A chocolate coin with "Proudly serving you for 22 years" on I believe. I ate mine, but kept the foil.
Great video, I love the voice over at the end
Ur a raging racist
i do not
he sucks
ball
im not even from the uk nor live in it yet this makes me respect virgin trains a lot and quite sad as well
You have a real voice over voice - jealous, I sound like a crying cat
You could say they lost their virginity
Lose their virginity to Avanti though?! Brilliant choice, DfT.
Fantastic
Of course WorstGroup has to come in whenever they can. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that they get so many rail franchises in the UK and there was so much reluctance to strip TPE of its contract.
Cheap ain't always better!
I guess VTEC did not kick in
VT is so nostalgic to me, they did so much better then first group (should be called last-choice group)
Yes, the early days of the Pendolino. Some didn't like the claustrophobic interior or the red colour scheme but I loved it. The Avanti refurbs are way more claustrophobic imo. And the corporate red scheme was more down to Chris Green, the same man who revolutionised local travel out of London with Network SouthEast. I honestly think Stagecoach / Virgin should've kept the franchise, I mean having a corrupt government pulling the plug on them (over pensions) seems a bit hypocritical to me.
First Group’s operations in the USA are shonky too. (As I found out when I visited there for a few months.) They’re all about the bare minimum!
Nice story of Virgin Trains
Best train operator ever is Virgin Trains, no one compares to them and no one ever will
Hello I am a new fan of yours
Hello, glad you enjoy.
The fact that virgin trains was competing with itself is amazing 😂
thanks for the comments mayo
Why did Virgin leave us will they appear in the next bidding?
Could you maybe do one of these again but for FGW?
First probably won because their love of 80*, 800s, 802s, 803s, 805s, 807s, all being under their control, maybe thats why they have everything
First stripped the franchise down to the minimum, then the pandemic, then after a rap on the knuckles from the DfT, have tried to kind of recreate the VTWC offering onboard.
Do this but for London midland
Could u please do an episode like this but dedicated to first great western from 1994 to 2023😢
Never in my life at Farnham have I seen a service from Farnham to London! (They do run but start from Alton, never Farnham)
Problem is all the profit goes back to the shareholders that live in different countries. They don't care about our rail system and thank god the new Labour government plans to renationalize the rail service.
My partner works for Virgin Atlantic and we used to get discount on Virgin trains ton London through a Virgin group staff discount
I’m guessing the train staff at the time could of make use of this too
It’s a shame. Virgin was brilliant as a train company
Wish they would come back
I hope the DFT will give it back after removing Avanti from the WCML
I think Arriva deserve a little slack. They couldn't increase capacity even uf they want to, unless the old ball and chain....I mean, the DFT, allowed them to, and they are too busy stuffing their pockets....I mean, balancing the books, to hand over the money for more rolling stock.
If they had taken control just before the pandemic, and were thus restricted by the DfT's meddling... I mean assistance, I would be inclined to agree.
However, they took over the franchise over a decade before the DfT began forcing every action upon operators, and still failed to even properly acknowledge the overcrowding problem. To make matters worse, they have hardly reliveried and haven't refurbished their trains, which are now extremely tatty, and operate an ethically dubious fares policy in which the price is basically inversely proportional to how much you know about the system, what with split ticketing and so on. They know exactly what they're doing, and it benefits them at the expense of the passenger, so I'm less sympathetic.
1:15 make the service terrible… the DfT liked that.
Don’t know whether to laugh or cry at our governments priorities
I know for sure that the ticket office you show in the final days of virgin is Wigan north western my home station, please confirm or strike me down sir. Wonderful video as always
P.s I hope you get your mic fixed soon
Thank you! That station was indeed Wigan North Western, I’ve not been back since though so I’m not sure what it’s like now.
@@GWVillager it's pretty much the same just has new ticket machines, and it's still plastered in red as per avantis lack of investment
the question is, where are the chad trains?
Good question. Perhaps the Republic of Chad itself once their first railway finally opens?
I’ve seen the crashed pendolino in real life. All it has is a few scratches on it.
It was under Stagecoach control, I think. The replacement trains were based on Branson's spaceship follies.
Think it was meant to be more like air travel. When the AT300's come in it will be a backward step. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Pendolino shoved over to HS2 when built, well maybe temporarily, going by how long it takes to get new trains nowadays & the spiralling cost. When HS2 is running the WCML service would be downgraded slightly anyway, let's hope the fares reflect this but I suspect it will be helping to fund the other.
I did like Virgin Trains. But I didn’t like Virgin Trains East Coast. VTEC I think was voted the worst train operator on the East Coast Main Line. Before it was replaced by LNER (London North Eastern Railway).
Ive heard First Capital Connect was really bad
@@DanielDoherty-io7mi Thats the predecessor to Thameslink!
Yeah, I preferred East Coast massively over VTEC. Whenever I had a route East Coast might run on I would even wait up to half an hour longer at my connections in the hopes of getting one of their HSTs rather than some overcrowded little multiple unit or whatever else was on offer.
The virgin Pendolino vs. the chad Javelin
Is there a possibility that virgin trains will make a comeback or no?
It's unlikely within Britain. Virgin *have* expressed interest in running a competitor to Eurostar through the Channel Tunnel, but this is certainly not guaranteed yet.
@@GWVillager ok 🙂
Thank you I forgor
Avanti are my local trains sadly . Every train is delayed all or cancelled they aren’t like Virgin I’m just DISAPPOINTED and ASHAMED with Avanti and I know it sounds harsh but I wish Avanti loose the contract as SOON as possible just hate them
Everything seems to go terribly whenever I see first group is involved
My experiences with Virgin were usually not great. More expensive than East Coast when I could use either and their bike policy was woeful.
Virgin trains was better but Avanti west coast isn’t that bad
Are you on drugs?
That’s coz it’s still the same staff but with more shit to shovel
Tren
I needed to know why they don’t dig a tunnel and do an extension for the main line Train so that they can extend the unused abandoned underground train stations.
Why couldn’t they use the part D78 Stock train doors on the sides and also restructure the front face of the A60 and A62 stock and that includes the class 313, class 314 and class 315 remix and make them all together and also redesign them an overhead line and also make them into Five cars per units and also having three Disabled Toilets on those Five cars per units A60 and A62 stock trains and also convert the A60 and A62 stock trains into a Scania N112, Volvo B10M, Gardner 6LXB, Gardner 6LXC and Gardner 8LXB Diesel Engines and also put the Loud 7-Speed Voith Gearboxes even Loud 8-Speed Leyland Hydra cyclic Gearboxes in the A60 and A62 stock, class 313, class 314, and class 315 and also modernise the A60 and A62 stock and make it into an 11 car per unit so it could have fewer doors, more tables, computers and mobile phone chargers.
A Stock Trains and also having 8 Disabled Toilets on those A stock trains. why couldn’t we refurbish and modernise the Waterloo and city line Triple-Track train tunnel and make it more Larger and extend it to the bank station, making it into a Triple-Track Railway Line so those Five countries such as Australia, Germany, Italy, Poland And Sweden to convert the waterloo and city line Triple-Track Railway tunnel into a High-Speed Railway lines?
The Third Euro tunnel Triple-Track Railway line to make it 11 times better for passengers so they could go from A to B. Then put the modernised 11 car per unit A Stock and put them on a bigger modernised Waterloo and city line Triple-Track train tunnel so it could go to bank station to those Five countries such as Australia, Germany, Italy, Poland And Sweden. The modernised refurbished 11 cars per unit A stock could be a High Speed The Third Triple-Track Euro Tunnel Train So it is promising and 47 times a lot more possible to do this kind of project if that will be OK for London Australia, Germany, Italy, Poland And Sweden.
oh by the way, could they also tunnel the Triple-Track Railway Line so it will stop from Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex so that the Passengers will go to Australia, Germany, Italy, Poland and Sweden and also extend the Triple-Track Railway Line from the Bank to Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex Stations so that more people from there could go to Australia, Germany, Italy, Poland And Sweden more Easily.
Why couldn't they extend the Piccadilly Line and also build brand-new underground train stations so it could go even further right up to Clapton, Wood Street can they also make another brand new underground train station in Chingford and could they extend the Piccadilly Line and the DLR right up to Chingford?
All of the classes 150, 155, 154, 117, 114, 105, and 106, will be replaced by all of the Scania N112, Volvo B10M, Gardner 6LXB, Gardner 6LXC and Gardner 8LXB Diesel Five carriages three disabled toilets are air conditioning trains including Highams Park for extended roots which is the Piccadilly line and the DLR trains.
Could you also convert all of the 1973 stock trains into an air-conditioned maximum speed 78 km/hours (48 MPH) re-refurbished and make it into a 8 cars per unit if that will be alright, and also extend all of the Piccadilly train stations to make more space for all of the extended 8 car per unit 1973 stock air condition trains and can you also build another Mayflower and Tornado Steam Locomotive Companies and can they order Every 37 Octagon and Every 17 Hexagon shape LNER diagram unique small no.13 and unique small no.11 Boilers from those Countries such as Greece, Italy, Poland, and Sweden, can they make Mayflower and Tornado Steam Locomotive speeds by up to 142MPH so you can try and test it on the Original Mainline so it will be much more safer for the Passengers to enjoy the 142MPH speed Limit only for HS2 and Channel Tunnel mainline services, if they needed 16 Carriages Per units, can they use those class 55’s, class 44’s, class 40’s and class 43HST Diesel Locomotive’s right at the Back of those 18 Carriages Per Units so they can take over at the Back to let those Mayflower and Tornado Steam Locomotive’s have a rest for those interesting Journeys Please!!!!!!!, oh can you make all of those Coal Boxes’s 17 Tonnes for all of those 142MPH Mayflower and Tornado Steam Locomotive’s so the Companies will Understand us PASSENGER’S!! so please make sure that the Builders can do as they are told!!!!! And please do something about these very very important Professional ideas Please? Prime Minister of England, Prime Minister of Australia, Prime Minister of Sweden, Prime Minister of Germany, Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister of Poland and that Includes the Mayor of London.
I beg your pardon?
@@GWVillager Spam comment, had this exact comment multiple times and seen it all over the place. Not a clue why though 🤣
@@TrainsOfDorset Very odd, it almost seems AI generated.
First Group get away with everything 😳
That's what happens when you stuff government bank accounts....
Never had any problems with virgin. I haven't traveled with avanti so can't comment but seen nothing but trouble with them.
Increased fares for slower journeys. no thanks.
And what was that 4hr journey time they tried to get away with.
First 😡
Stagecoach
Transdev
Rotola
Go Ahead
National Express
LNER are so much better