Virgin Trains (Virgin Trains)

Member Name: Whizz11

Product:	Virgin Trains
Date:	12/12/08 (511 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap tickets, nice seats

Disadvantages: None

I recently took a Virgin Train (and have used them a fair few times in the past) to go up to Manchester so I though I would write about my experience. National Rail was privatized back in the 90's and as such different companies bidded on different routes that they wanted to operate separately and hopefully profitably.

Virgin trains successfully bid for the West Coast Main Line which covers over 401 miles through Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Preston, North Wales and Glasgow.

As I was going to Manchester this was therefore the train company I had to take.

Virgin Trains are part of the Virgin Group which of course is a Richard Branson enterprise. The Virgin Group's share of the company is 51% and the remaining 49% is held by the Stagecoach Group. Virgin trains are very easy to spot as they have the familiar Virgin written across the side of them and tend to be white or a light colour.

According to an article I read their fleet size is as follows:

53 Pendolino sets
21 Super Voyager sets
16 British Rail Class 57/3 diesel locomotives

We bought our train tickets on the Virgin trains website, http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/default.aspx.

I think their website is extremely easy to navigate and very easy to book tickets on. I've done this several times and have never had a problem. They do have a help line if you need to speak to someone.

The great thing about Virgin trains is that if you book far enough in advance the tickets are very very cheap which is great in this day and age. My return ticket to Manchester cost me £26. I can't even get to London from where I live (1/2 an hour a way for £26!) so it really is good value. You can only book so far in advance though and often the dates you need aren't available when you first look so you do need to check back now and again but it is definitely worth keeping on top of.

You can have the tickets sent to your house (for a nominal fee per ticket) or I believe you can pick them up from the station. We had them sent to our house.

Virgin Trains leave from London Euston when in London. Euston is very easy to get too, it's on the Northern and Victoria lines from the Underground. The station itself is huge with lots of platforms and a big departures/arrivals board. There are a few shops and a pub there to keep you entertained before your journey. Do bear in mind though it takes quite a few minutes to get to the far platforms from the pub so do give yourself time!!

Once on the train we actually had an assigned seat with a number so it was easy to find and nice to have a seat and not have to stand. If someone is in your seat already there are porters on the train who you can ask for assistance and they will move the other passenger for you. This happened to us and there was no problem in the end. The seats are actually quite comfortable and fairly big. They either have groups of four seats with a table in the middle or two seats together with a drop down table in the seat back in front of you.

We actually sat in a carriage that was supposed to be a noise free one, ie you weren't allowed to use mobile phones. I liked the idea of this and found it did work fairly well and everyone seemed to follow the rules.

The train has a refreshments trolley where you can purchase hot drinks, sandwiches, chocolate etc and I found that it had a good selection at somewhat inflated prices but not too bad.
The toilets were clean to begin with, obviously over the duration of a long journey they do get a bit dirty but I liked the fact they were clean to begin with.

The train had a few stops along the way up to Manchester and the driver announced each one well in advance, as well as a warning bell that sounded to make sure you got off at the stop you needed to. Our train arrived bang on time so I was very please with that too.

All in all, if you book early enough I think Virgin trains put on a good service and I would definitely use them again.

Summary: Virgin Trains