Is virgin getting replaced by arriva trains in britain?

Question

im confused we have traveled by virgin cross country for many years now and found them very reliable and now apparently they lost against another franchise arriva please tell me whats going on?

Answer 1

It's all part of the incredible nonsense that is the privatised railway system in the UK. Virgin turned round an incredibly creaking system of routes that it had inherited from British Rail into a very efficient system with regular interval services, and an interchange system at Birmingham New Street, giving travel opportunities that perhaps had never existed before. The, the refranchising round comes along, and 'poof', Virgin XCountry is dead, long live Arriva Cross Country. Total nonsense. And who pays? The passenger does in the long run. Railway Magazine calculated the cost runs into millions thatconsequent upon the change of operator - including the vast cost of reliverying the fleet of trains. This is all a legacy of the last Conservative Government (don't forget what a bunch of prats they were).If privatisation had to happen (and is is unarguable but that it has a good long term effect on the railway system) it would have been far better to introduce regional companies, owning the infrastructure an rolling stock, rather than the current muddle which only puts money into the pockets of design consultants, accountants and lawyers.

Answer 2

hi my name is Ryan i am a rail engineer i can tell you just what happend arriva trains put a bid in for the cross country lines but virgin trains could not beat there bid so now if you live near Milton Keynes you will see a lot of rail engineers sky blue and carillion updating the line for arriva

Answer 3

on the cross country routs it has been decided by an incredibly complex and secretive system that their bid was not as good as arrivas, virgin will still exist on the west coast route

Answer 4

In 1997 Virgin Trains won two of the franchises British Rail was broken up into - West Coast, and Cross Country, initially both until 2012. In November 2007 the Cross Country franchise was reorganised, with some ex-Central Trains routes transferred to it, the services from Manchester to Scotland transferred to First TransPennine Express, and the Birmingham to Glasgow service was transferred to West Coast.

Because the reorganised franchise was a substantial change, it was re-let in 2006, and Arriva won the Cross Country franchise until April 2016.

If Network Rail manage to complete their engineering works at Rugby and other places in time, Virgin West Coast's timetable is to be completely revamped in December 2008, with the following changes (times from Euston):

Euston - West Midlands: Train at xx:03 to Rugby, Coventry, Birmingham International, Birmingham New St.. Train at xx:23 to Watford Jn, Coventry, Birmingham Int, Birmingham NS, Sandwell & Dudley, Wolverhampton. Train at xx:43 to Milton Keynes, Coventry, Birmingham Int, Birmingham NS.

Euston - Manchester: Train at xx:00 to Stoke, Macclesfield, Stockport, Manchester Piccadilly. Train at xx:20 to Milton Keynes, Stoke, Stockport, Piccadilly. Train at xx:40 to Crewe, Wilmslow, Stockport, Piccadilly.

Euston - Liverpool: Train at xx:07 to Stafford, Runcorn, and Liverpool Lime St.

Euston - Preston / Glasgow: Train at xx:30 to Warrington, Wigan, Preston, and Lancaster, with most continuing to Oxenholme or Penrith (alternately), Carlisle, and Glasgow Central, with some calling at Motherwell.

Euston / West Midlands - Chester / North Wales: Train at xx:10 (SuperVoyagers, running as double trains as far as Crewe or Chester) to Milton Keynes, Crewe, and Chester, with 7 trains a day continuing to Flint, Prestatyn, Rhyl, Colwyn Bay, Llandudno Junction, Bangor (2 terminate here) and Holyhead, and another train running to Wrexham from Chester. One of the two SuperVoyagers will terminate at Chester, another will terminate at Crewe with the second unit going on to Lancaster. One of the North Wales trains will run from Birmingham New St.

Most calls south of Crewe by Virgin are to be cut, and replaced with a new semi-fast London - Crewe service operated by London Midland. Virgin will stop few trains at places like Lichfield, Tamworth, and Nuneaton, except for a few peak hour trains not suitable for leisure-fare travellers, and Watford, Milton Keynes, Rugby and Stafford will also lose out, but the new London Midland service is supposed to fill in the gaps, and allow longer-distance journeys through changes of train at Crewe.