UPDATE...crap trains (Virgin Trains)

Member Name: emmahancock99

Product:	Virgin Trains
Date:	18/04/01 (39 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: travel

Disadvantages: dirty, slow, late, unreliable

I have been forced to use virgin trains for the last few years becasue of lack of a car. Over the period of June till Oct last year (ie before the Hatfield crash) the service was still a disaster. I travelled the 3 and a half hour journey from Crewe to Exeter 6/7 times. Out of these times I can say I did not arrive once on time or without some kind of problem.

The main things I got annoyed about were the constant delays and the lack of information the stations gave me about the reasoning behind this. When finally getting on these trains I find that they are not even clean and usually over filled.

I have also been thoroughly annoyed by the booking system. The internet is a welcome improvement (although very slow), but the phone lines are a shamble. They are always busy and when you finally get through I am giving different quotes for my travel. As I had travelled this route before I knew it should cost around £20 (with railcard and 2 weks in advance), however a number of times I have been quoted between £15 and £60 for the same service. Then I ring another operator and get another completly different price for exactly the same service. This as you can understand is irritating and confusing, and it probably catches a lot of people out especially if they do not know how much it should cost. I have written to Virgin about my companints and about 3 months later I simply got a 'sorry' letter, I wasnt very impressed!

I am sick to death of the virgin trains and the recent news that they are increasing their fares is a joke! They really need to sort themselves out, especially recently they seem to ahve got even worse (if this is possible!) and they are now charging higher prices, the trains are even later and im very fed up!

Summary: