Virgin Pendolino

Advantages: Fast, smooth, clean and comfortable
Disadvantages: Ticket prices can be expensive so buy early and travel off peak

...the cheapest seats I rang Virgin Train Services over 2 weeks before our trip and managed to get 14 day value return tickets for £28 from Shrewsbury to Euston. It is worth noting that it is sometimes cheaper to buy 2 single tickets than a return so it’s important to look at all the options. The tickets arrived very quickly and gave all the timings for the trip including the connection times at Birmingham New Street. It was at Birmingham that we boarded ...
...relax for the journey. Virgin have thoughtfully provided drop down tables in the back of the seat in front and these are moulded cream plastic with a cup rest indentation. All of the seats in our compartment faced backwards however I noticed that in some compartments there were fixed tables between four seats. Below the table there is a black net which is useful for holding magazines. Above our heads the luggage rack was sufficiently tilted to prevent ... Read review

Advantages: Huge amounts of cheap buy-in-advance Virgin Value tickets, On-board entertainment system with 4 pre-recorded channels, and 10 live stations including radio1, 2 etc.. Modern electronic displays. First Class for me.
Disadvantages: Luggage space apparantly seems to be lacking in standard class. The Birmingham to London route seems to be bad for tilt.

...I'M REVIEWING 9/10 The Virgin Pendolinos are Italian electric trains, which are formed of nine coaches. Five of these are cattle class (i mean standard class), and four of them are First Class. First Class is almost always at the London end, with Standard Class at the country end. North End ................. South End. ...... Coach... A B C D F G H J K The name "Pendolino" is Italian, and is named after electric tilting trains which operated in ...
...10/10 The Virgin Pendolinos can be found on almost all (99%) Virgin West Coast services. I say "Virgin West Coast", because they shouldn't be mixed up with Virgin Cross-Country, who operates Virgin's Voyager trains. (See my other review, about Voyagers for details) Virgin West Coast operates nearly every single service to/from London Euston, and stations through to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, and Preston. Please note that Voyagers, ... Read review

Advantages: Fast, frequent, lots of seats
Disadvantages: Poor travelling environment, slow at weekends

INTRO Virgin Pendolinos have been running out of London Euston for three years now, providing intercity services up to Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Manchester, Preston and Glasgow at frequent intervals. They are all formed of a nine-car formation, not to confuse them with the similar Voyagers which are diesel and 4/5 car. HISTORY Virgin Trains took over the West Coast Mainline in 1997 and promised new 'state of the art' trains and higher speeds. ...
...ride. It was understandable for virgin to want new trains, but surely the 'not that old' mk3s could been kept for extra services seeing as overcrowding is a major issue on this railway? Not so, In 2003 Virgins first Pendolino ran on the West Coast Mainline to Wolverhampton. Although designed for 140mph running, they were limited to 110mph until 2004 when speeds were finally raised to a permanent 125mph all the way to Glasgow. ON BOARD Pendolinos ... Read review

Advantages: Faster than before
Disadvantages: Everything else

...sits extremely close to each other. I would swap one of these tacky trains for a proper loco and Mark 3 carriages any day. Or a genuine Italian Pendolino. The person responsible for procuring the Virgin trains should be ashamed of himself. Back to the drawing board... ... Read review