Article from BTNews 7 MAY 2018
Record for Virgin Trains
New records for passenger numbers travelling between the West Midlands and London are being claimed by Virgin Trains as the intercity operator celebrates 21 years of operating the west coast route.
Latest figures show the company carried more than 2.2m customers between the West Midlands and London between April last year and March this year, a 4.6% increase compared to the corresponding period.
There was also a record number of journeys over the route in the four weeks up to last Christmas 2017. More than 200,000 journeys were made on Virgin Trains between London and Birmingham New Street in the same period.
This was the highest number to date and 10.8% up on the previous year. Significant increases in customer journeys were also seen between London and Coventry (7.1%), Rugby (8.3%) and Sandwell and Dudley (4.5%).
Virgin says the new figures coincide with a year that saw punctuality reaching its highest level since privatisation and the roll-out of the new onboard entertainment streaming service, BEAM.
Virgin Trains’ general manager for the Midlands Amanda Hines said: “Journey times in our 21 years have been cut and service innovations such as BEAM and more low fares have brought increased customer satisfaction as more people turn to rail.”
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