In this first issue
Welcome!
Welcome to The Red Letter
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Your journeys
Customers love our trains and staff – now it's Euston's turn for a makeover
Major track improvements to affect services through NW England in July
More seats, more journey options between West Midlands and Scotland
Virgin Trains to contest Network Rail's denial of new services to Blackpool and Shrewsbury
Our Trains
We're spending on spending a penny (and other things too!)
Our destinations
Birmingham butterfly
Our people
New driver recruitment
Virgin Trains recognised for excellence
Railway world
Tackling West Coast punctuality
Future franchises announced
Tackling West Coast punctuality

Despite travelling on our modern trains, customers are too often subject to delays.

The Office of Rail Regulation has strongly criticised Network Rail for failing to meet punctuality targets. For performance failures on long-distance routes Network Rail is facing fines of up to £75 million. We are keen that fines of this kind should be spent on initiatives that bring direct benefit to customers rather than being removed from the rail environment by being paid to the Treasury. 

In addition, Virgin Rail Group (the owning group of Virgin Trains) is preparing enforcement action specific to the West Coast Mainline. This action is a result of the  sustained poor performance by Network Rail on the West Coast, which VRG believes is a breach of contract and has deterred some customers from travelling, and damaged our business. 

Punctuality in context
Network Rail has missed targets agreed with Virgin Trains over the last two years, and punctuality stands at 85.7 percent in the most recent four-weekly period ending 25 May, against a target of 88 percent. More than 70 percent of delays are a result of Network Rail infrastructure issues, with fewer than 15 percent caused by Virgin Trains problems. The remaining delays are caused by other freight and passenger operators.




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