Virgin CrossCountry

Last updated

Virgin CrossCountry
VirginTrainsLogo.svg
Virgin Voyager 220003 2005-06-09 03.jpg
A Class 220 Voyager at Bristol Temple Meads in 2005
Overview
Franchise(s)InterCity CrossCountry
6 January 1997 – 10 November 2007
Main route(s)Southern England/London Paddington and South West England/South East Wales – Midlands – Northern England and Scotland
Fleet size34 Voyager and 44 Super Voyager sets
Parent company Virgin Group (51%)
Stagecoach (49%)
Reporting mark VXC
Successor CrossCountry

Virgin CrossCountry [1] was a train operating company in the United Kingdom that operated the InterCity CrossCountry passenger franchise from January 1997 until November 2007. Along with the InterCity West Coast [2] franchise held by a separate legal entity, the company traded under the Virgin Trains brand.

Contents

Operations commenced on 5 January 1997 as part of the privatisation of British Rail. Originally scheduled to run for 15 years, the franchise was suspended in favour of a management contract in July 2002. The government opted to retender the CrossCountry franchise during the late 2000s and services were transferred over to Arriva-owned CrossCountry on 11 November 2007.

Virgin CrossCountry operated some of the longest direct rail services in the United Kingdom, but most avoided Greater London entirely as a result of changes in 2003. All of its services called, or terminated, at Birmingham New Street. Multiple service reorganisations, such as Project Princess and Project Omega, were implemented by the company. In order to replace its British Rail-era rolling stock, the company introduced Class 220 Voyagers and Class 221 Super Voyagers.

History

Mark 2 carriage at Banbury in 2001 Virgin Mk 2 carrage 2001...png
Mark 2 carriage at Banbury in 2001

Amid the privatisation of British Rail during the mid 1990s, the newly formed Virgin Rail Group submitted multiple bids to operate several different train franchises, including Gatwick Express, InterCity CrossCountry and InterCity West Coast. [3] It was successful in winning the latter two, both scheduled to run for 15 years, leading to the creation of Virgin CrossCountry and Virgin West Coast: [4] [5] During November 1996, it was announced that Virgin had been awarded the InterCity CrossCountry franchise. [6] Services were operated by a wholly owned subsidiary, CrossCountry Trains Limited. [7] The company commenced operations on 5 January 1997.

In October 1998, Virgin Group sold 49% of the shares in Virgin Rail Group to Stagecoach. [8]

Virgin sought to introduce new tilting trains upon some of its services; however, their introduction was repeatedly delayed as a consequence of poor project management by the national railway infrastructure owner of the era, Railtrack. [9] Infrastructure changes were required to make effective use of tilting trains and, while Railtrack had committed itself to performing such upgrades on the West Coast Main Line as to permit 140 mph operation by 2005, the modernisation programme soon suffered from spiralling costs, [10] as well as technical failures such as the moving block signalling apparatus sought being immature for the intended use at that time. [11] Railtrack would ultimately collapse in 2002 while its successor, Network Rail, would also be unable to fully deliver the promised upgrade, heavily impacting Virgin's operations. [12] [13]

In the wake of the collapse of Railtrack and the inability of Network Rail to fully deliver on promised improvements, both the Virgin CrossCountry and Virgin West Coast franchises were suspended in favour of management contracts in July 2002. [14] [15] [16] While the terms of the West Coast franchise were renegotiated, an agreement could not be reached on CrossCountry, and it was thus retendered during the late 2000s. Virgin Trains were keen to retain the franchise, and submitted a bid in response along with several other interested parties. [17]

During September 2006, the Department for Transport announced the shortlist for the New CrossCountry franchise, which included Virgin Rail Group. [18] In October 2006, the DfT issued the invitation to tender (ITT) to the four shortlisted bidders: Arriva, FirstGroup, National Express and Virgin Rail Group. [19] On 10 July 2007, the Department for Transport awarded the new CrossCountry franchise to Arriva; accordingly, the services operated by Virgin CrossCountry were transferred over to the newly created operator, named CrossCountry, on 11 November 2007. [20] [21]

Services

In May 1998, Virgin introduced new services from Portsmouth Harbour to Liverpool Lime Street and Blackpool North. The Summer Saturday service to Ramsgate ran for the last time in September 1999. [22] The Summer Saturday services to Weymouth ran for the last time in September 2002. [23] [ full citation needed ]

Operation Princess

In September 2002, Virgin Trains launched Operation Princess. This involved introducing a new clockface timetable with shorter trains running more frequently. However, the new fleet suffered from a number of technical faults which, coupled with infrastructure and capacity issues, led to many problems. [24] [25] Between September 2002 and January 2003, punctuality fell to 54.1%, [26] it was therefore agreed with the Strategic Rail Authority that certain services would be cut to improve reliability and robustness on the core network. [27]

When Operation Princess was launched in September 2002, Virgin CrossCountry served these destinations:

CodeRouteFate
VT0 Birmingham New Street to Swindon via Cheltenham Withdrawn summer 2003 [28]
VT1 Glasgow Central, Edinburgh Waverley & Blackpool North through Birmingham New Street to South West of England Blackpool North withdrawn summer 2003 [28]
VT2 Aberdeen, Edinburgh Waverley & Newcastle through Manchester Piccadilly and Birmingham New Street to Poole Services west of Bournemouth withdrawn summer 2003 [28]
VT3 Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester Airport, through Birmingham New Street to London Paddington, Portsmouth and Brighton Portsmouth and London Paddington withdrawn summer 2003, reduced frequency to Brighton, all Liverpool Lime Street withdrawn winter 2003 [28] [29]
VT4 Aberdeen and Edinburgh Waverley through Birmingham New Street to Cardiff, Swansea, Paignton and Penzance Services west of Cardiff withdrawn summer 2003 [28]

Project Omega

Project Omega was a project which would have seen a series of improvements following the West Coast modernisation. [30] This included Virgin CrossCountry running services from London Kings Cross to Teesside via Nottingham and York and another service from Portsmouth Harbour to Nottingham via Feltham for Heathrow. These services would have been run by the Class 220. The project also involved extending Virgin's West Coast and CrossCountry franchises by 5 years (both originally planned to end in 2012, so would have been 2017) as well as adding a fifth car to 38 Voyagers.

By the time Virgin Trains lost the CrossCountry franchise to Arriva in 2007, the network consisted of only the following routes:

CodeRoute
VT1 South West of England through Birmingham to the North West and Scotland
VT2South Coast through Birmingham to the North of England and Scotland
VT3 South West of England and South East Wales through Birmingham to the North East of England and Scotland

Rolling stock

43093 Lady in Red in Virgin Cross/Country livery at Preston 43093 Lady in Red.jpg
43093 Lady in Red in Virgin Cross/Country livery at Preston

Virgin CrossCountry inherited a fleet of Class 47 and Class 86 locomotives, Mark 2 Carriages, High Speed Trains and Class 158 Express Sprinter diesel multiple units from British Rail. Class 47s on hire from English Welsh & Scottish and Fragonset were also fairly common.

A franchise commitment was the replacement of these trains with new stock. In December 1998 Virgin signed a deal to lease 78 Voyager diesel–electric multiple units built by Bombardier Transportation, consisting of 34 four-carriage Class 220 Voyagers and 40 five-carriage and four four-carriage Class 221 Super Voyagers. [31] The Super Voyagers were built with tilting mechanisms to enable higher speeds on curved tracks, including on the West Coast Main Line and between Oxford and Banbury. [32] [ full citation needed ] The four-carriage Super Voyagers were intended for use by Virgin West Coast on services from London Euston to Holyhead, although they ended up being pooled with the other Voyagers. When Virgin West Coast started using Super Voyagers on Holyhead services in September 2004, the five-carriage units were used.

The first Class 220 Voyager arrived from Belgium in January 2001 and entered service on 21 May 2001. [33] The last Class 47s, Class 86s and Mark 2 carriages were withdrawn in August 2002, while the Express Sprinters were transferred to Wessex Trains and First TransPennine Express.

After experiencing rapid growth Virgin CrossCountry decided to retain some High Speed Train sets. During December 2001, it announced plans to refurbish eight HSTs as Virgin Challengers for use on proposed services from London Paddington to Manchester Piccadilly via Cheltenham, with the option to refurbish more. [34] [ full citation needed ] In the wake of the collapse of Operation Princess, [35] the project was cancelled with the remaining HSTs withdrawn in September 2003 on the instruction of the Strategic Rail Authority. [36]

To provide extra stock for services on summer Saturday services to Paignton and Newquay, Virgin CrossCountry hired HSTs from Virgin West Coast, Midland Mainline and Great North Eastern Railway (GNER), [37] and Mark 3B loco-hauled carriages from Virgin West Coast. In 2004, Virgin hired Class 67 locomotives from EWS and Mark 2 carriages from Riviera Trains to operate summer Saturday services to Paignton. [38]

A standby set of Mark 2 carriages was leased from Riviera Trains from September 2004. [39] This set was usually used with an EWS Class 90 locomotive between Birmingham New Street and Manchester Piccadilly, although it did run to Newcastle with a Class 57/3 in January 2007.

HSTs were hired from Midland Mainline and GNER on a number of occasions to operate services from Edinburgh Waverley to Plymouth when Voyagers were unavailable.

Original fleet

ClassImageTypeBuiltWithdrawnNotes
Class 43 Hornby HST 43087-02.jpg Diesel locomotive 1976–19822003Operated with Mark 3 carriages.
Class 47 47817 The Institution of Mechanical Engineers at Exeter St Davids.jpg Diesel locomotive 1962–19682002Operated with Mark 2 carriages. Some of these were rebuilt as Class 57/3 locomotives.
Class 86 86229 'Lions Club International' at Birmingham New Street.jpg Electric locomotive 1965–19662002Operated with Mark 2 carriages.
Class 158 Express Sprinter 158751 at Westbury.JPG DMU 1989–19922003
Mark 2 carriage BR Mk.IIf TSO No.5934 (6731878621).jpg Passenger carriage 1964–19752002Operated with Class 47 and 86 locomotives.
Mark 3 carriage BR Mk.IIIa FO No.11027 (6790554465).jpg Passenger carriage 1975–19822003Operated with Class 43 locomotives.

Final fleet

ClassImageTypeTop speedBuiltNumber
mphkm/h
Class 220 Voyager Virgin Voyager 220003 2005-06-09 05.jpg DEMU 1252002000–200134
Class 221 Super Voyager Class 221 Virgin Voyager approaching Bristol Parkway westbound 2006-05-03 02.jpg DEMU 1252002001–200244

Planned fleet (never built)

ClassImageTypeBuiltNumberInformation
Class 255 Virgin Challenger DMU 2002 (planned refurbishment)14 (planned)Planned refurbishment of the High Speed Train to be used on services between Blackpool, Manchester and Birmingham, and Paddington to Birmingham via Swindon. These plans came to naught as the Strategic Rail Authority planned to transfer most of the stock to Midland Mainline for their London-Manchester 'Rio' services. [40]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Midland Mainline (train operating company)</span> Train operating company

Midland Mainline was a train operating company in the United Kingdom that operated the Midland Main Line franchise between April 1996 and November 2007. It was owned by the British transport company National Express.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arriva Trains Northern</span> Former British train operating company

Arriva Trains Northern was a train operating company in England owned by Arriva that operated the Regional Railways North East franchise from March 1997 until December 2004. Arriva resumed operating Northern train services again on 1 April 2016 under the Northern brand but ceased again on 29 February 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virgin Trains</span> British train operating company (1997–2019)

Virgin Trains (VT) was a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Virgin Rail Group, a joint venture between Virgin Group and Stagecoach, which operated the InterCity West Coast franchise from 9 March 1997 to 7 December 2019. The franchise covered long-distance passenger services on the West Coast Main Line between London, the West Midlands, North West England, North Wales and southern Scotland, consequently connecting six of the UK's largest cities: London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow and Edinburgh, which have a combined metropolitan population of over 18 million. It had around 3,400 employees in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great North Eastern Railway</span> Former British railway company

Great North Eastern Railway, often referred to as GNER, was a train operating company in the United Kingdom, owned by Sea Containers, that operated the InterCity East Coast franchise on the East Coast Main Line between London, Yorkshire, North East England and Scotland from April 1996 until December 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">InterCity 125</span> British high-speed diesel passenger train

The InterCity 125 or High Speed Train (HST) is a diesel-powered high-speed passenger train built by British Rail Engineering Limited between 1975 and 1982. A total of 95 sets were produced, each comprising two Class 43 power cars, one at each end, and a rake of seven or eight Mark 3 coaches. The name is derived from its top operational speed of 125 mph (201 km/h). At times, the sets have been classified as British Rail Classes 253, 254 and 255.

In the railway system of Great Britain, a train operating company (TOC) is a railway undertaking operating passenger trains under the collective National Rail brand. TOCs have existed since the privatisation of the network under the Railways Act 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Rail Mark 3</span> Single-level rail passenger carriage

The British Rail Mark 3 is a type of passenger carriage developed in response to growing competition from airlines and the car in the 1970s. A variant of the Mark 3 became the rolling stock for the High Speed Train (HST).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Rail Class 390</span> Type of electric high-speed train operated by Avanti West Coast

The British Rail Class 390 Pendolino is a type of electric high-speed passenger train operated by Avanti West Coast in the United Kingdom, leased from Angel Trains. They are electric multiple units using Fiat Ferroviaria's tilting train Pendolino technology and built by Alstom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Rail Class 220</span> British Diesel-electric multiple unit

The British Rail Class 220 Voyager is a class of diesel-electric high-speed multiple unit passenger trains built in Belgium by Bombardier Transportation in 2000 and 2001. They were introduced in 2001 to replace the 20-year-old InterCity 125 and almost 40-year-old Class 47-hauled Mark 2 fleets operating on the Cross Country Route. They were initially operated by Virgin CrossCountry and since 2007 have been operated by CrossCountry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Rail Class 221</span> Bombardier diesel tilting train

The British Rail Class 221 Super Voyager is a class of tilting diesel-electric multiple unit express passenger trains built in Bruges, Belgium and Wakefield, by Bombardier Transportation in 2001–02.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tourist Standard Open</span> British railways carriage

Tourist Second Open or Tourist Standard Open, abbreviated to TSO, is a type of British Railways coach. The designation "Tourist" was originally as opposed to a normal SO coach. Both types have the same number of seating bays per coach, but the TSO has four seats across, arranged 2+2 either side of a central aisle, while an SO has 3 seats across, arranged 2+1 with an offset aisle. Both offer the same legroom, but there is slightly less width per passenger in a TSO.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Rail Class 43 (HST)</span> British high speed diesel locomotive

The British Rail Class 43 (HST) is the TOPS classification used for the InterCity 125 High Speed Train diesel-electric power cars, built by British Rail Engineering Limited from 1975 to 1982, and in service in the UK since 1976.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grand Central (train operating company)</span> Open-access train operating company in the United Kingdom

Grand Central is an open-access train operating company in the United Kingdom. A subsidiary of Arriva UK Trains, it has operated passenger rail services since December 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bombardier Voyager</span> Diesel-electric multiple unit

The Bombardier Voyager is a family of high-speed 125 mph diesel-electric multiple units built in Belgium by Bombardier Transportation, for service on the railway network of the United Kingdom. Construction of the Voyager family took place between 2000 and 2005, consisting of three classes - the Class 220 Voyager, the Class 221 Super Voyager and the Class 222 Meridian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ScotRail (National Express)</span> Scottish train operating company (1997–2004)

ScotRail was a train operating company in Scotland owned by National Express that operated the ScotRail franchise from March 1997 until October 2004. Prior to March 1997 ScotRail ran the trains and after October 2004 First ScotRail ran them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CrossCountry</span> Train operating company in the United Kingdom

CrossCountry is a British train operating company owned by Arriva UK Trains, operating the current CrossCountry franchise.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Express East Coast</span> UK train operating company

National Express East Coast (NXEC) was a train operating company in the United Kingdom, owned by National Express, that operated the InterCity East Coast franchise on the East Coast Main Line between London, Yorkshire, North East England and Scotland from December 2007 until November 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Passenger rail franchising in Great Britain</span> Outsourcing of rail transport

Passenger rail franchising in Great Britain is the system of contracting the operation of the passenger services on the railways of Great Britain to private companies, which has been in effect since 1996 and was greatly altered in 2020, with rail franchising being effectively abolished in May 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virgin Rail Group</span> British rail franchise operator

Virgin Rail Group is a British rail transport company that was formed by the Virgin Group to bid for rail franchises in the United Kingdom during the privatisation of British Rail in the late 1990s.

Virgin Trains is a prospective open access operator proposing to operate services on the West Coast Main Line between London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Rochdale and Glasgow.

References

  1. ↑ "extract company no 3007937: CrossCountry Trains Limited". Companies House. Archived from the original on 17 January 2014.
  2. ↑ "extract company no 3007940: West Coast Trains Limited". Companies House. Archived from the original on 14 April 2014.
  3. ↑ "National Express wins Gatwick rail franchise". The Independent . 4 April 1996. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018.
  4. ↑ "Virgin to run CrossCountry trains". The Independent. 14 November 1996. Archived from the original on 7 November 2017.
  5. ↑ Harrison, Michael (31 January 1997). "Virgin pledges tilt trains for West Coast". The Independent. Archived from the original on 20 August 2017. Retrieved 4 October 2012.
  6. ↑ "Virgin to run CrossCountry trains". The Independent. 14 November 1996. Archived from the original on 7 November 2017.
  7. ↑ "CROSSCOUNTRY TRAINS LIMITED". Companies House. Archived from the original on 14 April 2019. Retrieved 14 April 2019.
  8. ↑ Virgin passengers get better deal Archived 3 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine BBC News 7 October 1998
  9. ↑ Hughes, Murray (1 February 2003). "Pendolino to attack the London - Manchester market" . Railway Gazette International . Sutton: DVV Media Group. ISSN   0373-5346. Archived from the original on 28 July 2019. Retrieved 13 November 2019.
  10. ↑ "Repair costs spiral to £5bn". BBC News. 15 December 1999. Archived from the original on 10 November 2013.
  11. ↑ Meek, James (1 April 2004). "The main players in the £10bn rail fiasco". The Guardian.
  12. ↑ Christian, Wolmar (16 July 2005). "Forget Byers: the scandal was in the original sell-off: Railtrack was heading for disaster long before the Hatfield crash". The Guardian .
  13. ↑ "Supplementary memorandum by the Strategic Rail Authority". House of Commons. 22 July 2002.
  14. ↑ "Virgin Rail Group Interim Agreement". House of Commons Select Committee on Transport. Archived from the original on 7 September 2017.
  15. ↑ "CrossCountry could be carved up as SRA rejects Virgin bid". Rail Magazine . No. 494. 18 August 2004. p. 6.
  16. ↑ "CrossCountry network could be axed, fears Virgin". The Railway Magazine . No. 1242. October 2004. p. 4.
  17. ↑ "New Cross Country Franchise Specification Issued". Virgin Trains. 31 October 2006. Archived from the original on 4 September 2011.
  18. ↑ "New Cross Country Franchise Specification Issued". Virgin Trains. 31 October 2006. Archived from the original on 4 September 2011.
  19. ↑ "New Cross Country Franchise Invitation to Tender" (PDF). dft.gov.uk. Department for Transport. October 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 April 2010.
  20. ↑ "Department for Transport announces winner of New Cross Country franchise". Department for Transport. 10 July 2007. Archived from the original on 9 May 2011. Retrieved 17 September 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  21. ↑ "Arriva welcomes new CrossCountry rail franchise award". Arriva. 10 July 2007. Archived from the original on 20 May 2012. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
  22. ↑ 1999 – 2000 Back over the S&C Archived 7 August 2012 at the Wayback Machine 1s76.com
  23. ↑ Rail Magazine . No. 462. 28 May 2003. p. 53.{{cite magazine}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  24. ↑ Montague, Simon (19 November 2002). "Virgin's catalogue of misfortune". BBC News. Archived from the original on 30 July 2004. Retrieved 15 November 2007.
  25. ↑ "Virgin forced to replace new trains with old". The Telegraph. 1 December 2002. Archived from the original on 20 September 2016.
  26. ↑ Page 8 Virgin CrossCountry Fact File
  27. ↑ "Informed Sources January 2003". Alycidon. Archived from the original on 21 July 2012.
  28. 1 2 3 4 5 VT3 timetable 2003
  29. ↑ VT2 timetable 2005
  30. ↑ "West Coast: out of chaos has come order". Rail Magazine . No. 840. 22 November 2017. pp. 92–97.
  31. ↑ From Dream to Reality Archived 16 December 2012 at the Wayback Machine The Locomotive & Carriage Institution 5 November 2002
  32. ↑ Rail Magazine . No. 447. 30 October 2002. p. 11.{{cite magazine}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  33. ↑ Rail Magazine. No. 425. 26 December 2001. p. 36.{{cite magazine}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  34. ↑ Rail Magazine . No. 425. 26 December 2001. p. 10.{{cite magazine}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  35. ↑ "Select Committee on Transport Fourth Report". UK Parliament. Archived from the original on 5 September 2017. Retrieved 5 September 2017.
  36. ↑ Privatisation 1993–2005 Archived 30 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine 125 Group
  37. ↑ The High Speed Train Archived 30 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine Taunton Trains
  38. ↑ "History". Riviera Trains. Archived from the original on 29 March 2009.
  39. ↑ Rail Magazine. No. 496. 15 September 2004. p. 7.{{cite magazine}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  40. ↑ Privatisation 1993 – 2005 Archived 30 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine – 125 Group

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Virgin CrossCountry at Wikimedia Commons

Preceded by
InterCity
As part of British Rail
Operator of InterCity CrossCountry franchise
1997–2007		Succeeded by
CrossCountry
New CrossCountry franchise


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.