Virgin Trains > Reviews (102)

We've all heard the jokes about Virgin trains being late and unreliable . Whilst the company admit that things can only get better I wish to put things into context and perspective.
I have used Virgin and indeed all major rail companies in the past few months and my first point is I found Vigin no worse than any other train operating company.

Don't kid yourself about the problems facing Virgin and indeed most rail companies in this country.
The biggest one is the run down , neglected state of track and infrastructure that we have in this country.

Virgin , just like any other company are dependent on railtrack for the quality of the rails . So if a broken rail occurs just south of say Newcastle two rail companies will be hit - GNER and Virgin . Add on a third if you count EWS ( English Welsh & Scottish )the freight company.

All trains wishing to use that piece of line will obviuously be delayed . That is not Virgin or any other train operating companies fault . But it is they who get the blame . Comments like " Virgin's crap " and such like can be heard by ill informed members of the public who in a lot of cases do not stop to ask where the blame for the delay lies.

What happens when idiots run shopping supermarket trolleys on the main line in front of trains causing 2hr delays ? Again the unfortunate train company running any nearby services get's the blame . Is it there fault - rationally ?- of course not .

I was on a virgin train to Plymouth when idiot electric board workmen cut a cable near the track by mistake !? - causing chaos . Guess who got the blame Virgin or Northern electric ?

Vigin operate cross country services from Scotland via York and Leeds to the South West .They also run to Poole on the south coast and down the west coast main line from Manchester Piccadilly and Carlisle .

A lot of their routes go through bottlenecks such as Leeds and Birmingham News Street . So by the sheer geopraphy of the routes they are always going to be prone to more delays than say GNER who stick to the straighter and better maintained East coast main line from Edinburgh down to London KX via Peterborough.

The virgin brand is a strong an successful one . Richard Branson will not stand by and see Virgin rail taint the other virgin business forever . He will act and is acting to put matters right . New rolling stock and great fare promotions like York - Cheltenham return for £25 are a great step in the right direction. There is a range of tickets called virgin value that offer these brilliant fare offers for those who can get them.

They are sold on a quota system - first come first served . But they make train travel by virgin as cheap if not cheaper than the car when travelling alone .

Don't knock Virgin and train operating companies in general too much . It's too easy to jump on the press led bandwagon .
At the risk of being controversial I'd say blame decades of previous governments. They gave the old BR virtually nothing in real terms to modernise the ageing network we now have . -

I am confident Virgin will get it right in the end. I hope praise is forthcoming when they do !

© Lee Senior