Virgin Trains East Coast

Virgin Trains East Coast

Virgin Trains East Coast HST at Leeds station
Overview
Franchise(s)	InterCity East Coast 1 March 2015 – 31 March 2023
Main route(s)	London – Aberdeen London – Edinburgh London – Newcastle London – York London – Leeds London – Newark
Other route(s)	London – Inverness London – Glasgow London – Sunderland London – Skipton London – Bradford London – Harrogate London – Hull London – Lincoln
Fleet size	31 InterCity 225 sets 14 InterCity 125 sets
Stations called at	53
Stations operated	12
National Rail abbreviation	GR[1]
Parent company	Stagecoach Group (90%) Virgin Group (10%)
Website	www.virgintrainseastcoast.com
Route map

Virgin Trains East Coast^[2] is a train operating company in the United Kingdom that operates the InterCity East Coast franchise on the East Coast Main Line between London, Yorkshire, the North East and Scotland. It commenced operations on 1 March 2015, taking over from East Coast. It is a joint venture between Stagecoach (90%) and Virgin Group (10%).

History

Diagram of the ownership of TOCs between Virgin and Stagecoach

In January 2014, FirstGroup, Keolis/Eurostar and Stagecoach/Virgin were announced as the shortlisted bidders for the new InterCity East Coast franchise.^[3][4] In November 2014, the eight-year franchise was awarded to the Stagecoach/Virgin joint venture company Inter City Railways Limited,^[5] and commenced operating on 1 March 2015 trading as Virgin Trains East Coast.^[6][7][8][9]

Services

Typical off-peak Monday-Friday service pattern (including other inter-city services)

Virgin Trains East Coast took over all of the services operated by East Coast. It categorises its weekday services from London King's Cross into four routes:^[10]

New services

Virgin Trains East Coast introduced once per day services to Stirling and Sunderland via Newcastle on 14 December 2015, along with one extra service each weekday evening between Hull and Doncaster via Selby.^[11] In May 2016, a number of weekday services to Newcastle were extended to Edinburgh meaning there is almost a complete half hourly service between the two cities. Since December 2016, Morpeth has benefited from additional stops provided by the operator to improve connections to Edinburgh and London. VTEC are proposing to extend services that terminate at Newark and York to Lincoln and Harrogate respectively.^[8] In May 2019, it is proposed that a half-hourly service to Edinburgh be introduced with a fleet of six to eight 9-car InterCity 225 sets operating limited stops services. In May 2020, it is proposed to extend services to Huddersfield and Middlesbrough.^{[6][8][12][13]}

Rolling stock

Virgin Trains East Coast inherited a fleet of InterCity 125 and InterCity 225s from East Coast. Most driving vehicles received a Virgin logo within the first three days of the franchise, and all train sets received a full Virgin Trains East Coast livery by November 2015. Attention then turned to the interiors, with toilets to be refreshed and seat covers and carpets replaced.^[14] The first refurbished set entered service on 31 December 2015, and by August 2016 all of the HST sets had been refurbished followed by the 225's completed refurbished fleet in January 2017.

In July 2015, an additional InterCity 125 set was transferred from East Midlands Trains.^[15]

In September 2016, Virgin Trains East Coast hired three Class 90s from DB Cargo for use on services to Newark, York and Leeds.

Fleet table

Trainset	Class	Image	Type	Top speed		Number	Notes
				mph	km/h
InterCity 125	Class 43		Diesel locomotive	125	200	32
	Mark 3 carriage		Passenger carriage	125	200	117
InterCity 225	Class 90		Electric locomotive	110	177	3	A short term hire-in to cover for a shortfall in Class 91s.
	Class 91		Electric locomotive	140	225	31
	Mark 4 carriage		Passenger carriage	140	225	302
	Driving Van Trailer		Driving Van Trailer	140	225	31

Future fleet

All of the current fleet are scheduled to be replaced by Class 800/Class 801 high-speed trains from December 2018. These will operate in 9-carriage and 5-carriage sets.^[16][17] In March 2016, VTEC announced that its IEP trains would carry the brand name Azuma, the Japanese word for "East".^[18][19]

If VTEC's application to operate extra limited stops services to Edinburgh is successful, it is proposing to operate these by retaining six to eight InterCity 225 sets.^[13]

Trainset	Class	Image	Type	Top speed		Number of Units	Carriages	Routes
				mph	km/h
Hitachi Super Express[20]	Class 800 Azuma		Bi-Mode Multiple Unit	140	225	10	5	All
						13	9
	Class 801 Azuma		EMU	140	225	12	5	All electrified routes
						30	9
InterCity 225	Class 91		Electric locomotive	140	225	TBC (6 to 8)	TBC (9)	London-Edinburgh
	Mark 4		Passenger carriage	140	225
			Driving Van Trailer	140	225

Depots

Virgin Trains East Coast has four main depots:

• Bounds Green TMD, London
• Neville Hill TMD, Leeds
• Heaton TMD, Newcastle – managed by Northern
• Craigentinny TMD, Edinburgh – for repaints and heavy duty maintenance

Operation

Punctuality

According to VTEC: "CCTV footage shows Mr Corbyn returning to Coach H and sitting down at 11.43am, shortly after being filmed while sat on the floor and more than 2hrs before his final destination, Newcastle."^[21]

The public performance measure (PPM) shows the percentage of trains which arrive at their terminating station on time. It combines figures for punctuality and reliability into a single performance measure. The most recent figure (in the four weeks from 13 December 2015 – 9 January 2016) for Virgin Trains East Coast's PPM was 82.0%, up from 81.1% in the same period a year ago. The moving annual average PPM was 86.9%.^[22]

Passenger numbers

East Coast passenger numbers in the previous year from 2011 to 2017.^[23][24]

Profitability

Virgin Trains East Coast is forecast to pay higher premiums to the government than its predecessor East Coast did: £3.3 billion over eight years, compared with East Coast’s £1 billion over five years.^[25]

Stagecoach Profit Problems

On the 28 June 2017, Stagecoach made a loss when trades were down 11% due to the lose on the East Coast service and is in talks with the government with a deal expected in the next 12 months. RMT has called for renationalisation of the franchise. ^[26] Stagecoach is confident that it can make a profit in the next 2 years.

Incident with Jeremy Corbyn

In August 2016, a video was released of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in which he said he was forced to sit on the floor on a VTEC train to Newcastle because the train was "ram-packed". At the time, Corbyn said "Is it fair that I should upgrade my ticket whilst others who might not be able to afford such a luxury should have to sit on the floor? It’s their money I would be spending after all.”^[27][28] However, Virgin Trains later released CCTV footage which they said showed Corbyn walking past empty seats in Coach H, filming the video and then walking back to Coach H to sit for the rest of the journey.^[29][30] Corbyn said about the incident "Yes, I did walk through the train. Yes, I did look for two empty seats together so I could sit down with my wife, to talk to her. That wasn't possible so I went to the end of the train."^[31]

References

External links

• Media related to Virgin Trains East Coast at Wikimedia Commons
• Official website