Virgin on the ridiculous (Virgin Trains)

Member Name: jojoegypt2008

Product:	Virgin Trains
Date:	08/12/08 (132 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It goes?

Disadvantages: ...But not always....

I have used Virgin Trains between London Euston and Liverpool Lime Street on average 3-4 per month for the last three years, and I have to confess I'm not a fan.

Now, let's be realistic. No train company is ever going to have 'fans'... well, I hope not. However, Virgin can at times, be utterly infuriating.

In the time I have been travelling the route, prices have increased 25%, and the availability of cheap advance tickets has decreased significantly.

The tilting trains are a lot faster, sometimes making the journey in two and a half hours; however, they can be extremely uncomfortable, and if you suffer from travel sickness, you may want to bring a sick bag.

Often the reservations system isn't working, so don't bother to try and reserve a seat (this is their attempt to stop people complaining about overcrowding and not getting seats - "if you'd reserved your seat in advance, this wouldn't happen, so tough").

The train managers are often incomprehensible and really shouldn't be allowed loose on a PA system - some of them really love their fifteen minutes of fame.

When trains are delayed, they refund the cost of the single journey which was delayed - fair enough, you might say. However, they don't give you back the price of a single ticket if you had bought a return (just under a pound more expensive than a single....). They give you HALF back. That's right - just over half the price it would cost you to buy a replacement ticket. As for the number of SUndays where a three hour journey takes 7 hours..... Engineering Works which take THREE YEARS????

The lack of table seats (which have plug points for those trying to work on a laptop), the lack of policing of the Quiet Zone - try finding a train manager when you want one - he'll be making an announcement, telling passengers what they can see out of the window.... All these annoyances, which could easily be improved, are what make Virgin the kind of substandard service at huge cost that is becoming increasingly common today.

Summary: Cut price service at inflated cost