Oct 14, 2007 23:00 BST Virgin CrossCountry hits performance high

15 October 2007

Virgin’s CrossCountry rail franchise has just recorded its best ever train performance. In the four weeks ending 13 October 90.6 percent of trains arrived on time at their destination, beating the previous record of 90.5 percent in April 2006.

The latest performance is the highest figure for the September/October period since Virgin took over running the CrossCountry franchise in January 1997 and represents a 24.4 percent increase from the 66.2 percent performance recorded in the same period five years ago. The moving annual average performance measure now stands at 84.4 percent, its highest level since January 1997.

Since taking over the CrossCountry rail franchise, Virgin has doubled the number of passengers from 12 million to 24 million a year; replaced the entire train fleet and enhanced train service frequencies.

Virgin Trains Managing Director Chris Gibb paid tribute to all CrossCountry people whose commitment to the business remains at the highest level.

“We are delighted that Virgin CrossCountry’s final results are its best. After years of hard work from everyone in the CrossCountry team, Bombardier and Network Rail, it’s great to see consistently good performance over last year.

“With our unique national network of long distance trains, stretching from Aberdeen to Penzance and from Glasgow to Brighton, punctuality has always been a daily challenge for us.

“To achieve punctuality consistently above 90 percent requires outstanding performance from people at all levels in numerous teams, reliable Voyager trains, good Network Rail infrastructure and punctual operation of other passenger and freight services with which we share the network.

“The consistently good performance has been instrumental in growing our customer volume – up from 12 million journeys a year at start of franchise to 24 million now – of which all at Virgin are very proud.”

Mr Gibb also added his thanks to Network Rail, Bombardier Transportation and staff at the stations served by CrossCountry for playing their part in helping the business hit its performance high.

We love keeping everyone informed at all times. Here, in our Media Room, you'll find the latest press releases, as well as downloadable images and our informative and very handy factsheet.

Contacts

Virgin Trains Press Office Press Contact [email protected] 0845 000 3333