Virgin Trains Makes Finding the Cheapest Fare Easier Than Ever with New Industry-Leading Website Submitted By: Morris & Company Tuesday, 20 March 2007

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Virgin Trains makes finding the cheapest fare easier than ever with new industry-leading website Submitted by: Morris & Company Tuesday, 20 March 2007

Virgin Trains is leading the railway industry with its new website designed to make searching and buying the cheapest possible ticket far simpler. The site provides customers with a one-stop-shop from enquiry through to ticket purchase. Already over 60,000 Virgin Trains customers have bought tickets through the new improved website. Searching for, and identifying, the cheapest available tickets for a rail journey has long been a bone of contention for many passengers. However, Virgin Trains has tackled this issue head on by developing and implementing a brand new search engine which simplifies the process and enables passengers to identify and purchase the best rail fare available quickly. While the railways are moving towards simplification of advance purchase fares across the industry, Virgin Trains is leading the way with its new, improved search engine (www.virgintrains.com) which has been developed in conjunction with ticket retailer The Trainline.com. Virgin Trains is also announcing a major campaign to make rail ticket fares more transparent and raise awareness of the value for money of rail travel. The new search engine and simpler, more user-friendly website will present rail passengers with the cheapest advance purchase – or walk-up – fares which are available for their chosen journey. No longer are all fares shown, irrespective of whether they are available or not. In a separate development, passengers who are unable to buy a Virgin Advance ticket for both the outward and return legs of their journey, or unable to specify an exact train for one leg of a return journey, are now able to mix and match ticket types and buy a Saver Half Return (at half the price of a Saver Return) for either the outward or return leg of the journey. This money-saving facility is available for website bookings only. There is still a perception that rail fares are expensive and a recent survey by watchdog Passenger Focus revealed that only 58% of rail passengers using Virgin Trains services felt they were getting value for money. Virgin Trains has always been at the forefront of making ticket-buying cheaper and simpler; it was the first train operator to introduce one-way tickets, introducing the simplest rail website to ease ticket-buying and working with the consumer group, Passenger Focus, to produce leaflets on buying cheap tickets. Furthermore, Virgin has also been trialling The Trainline.com’s brand new e-ticketing system - print@home, which it plans to relaunch later this year. Virgin Trains Commercial Director, Graham Leech, explains: “We’re undertaking a number of activities in the next six months to show people how to find the best value tickets available and how easy it really is to book, particularly online with our new website and search engine. We believe Virgin Trains is leading the industry providing a fast, simple and easy-to-navigate process for identifying and purchasing the best possible fare.”

Page 1 The simplification of the Virgin Trains website has been praised by Passenger Focus. Chief Executive Anthony Smith said: “There are some great deals on fares out there, but many passengers are telling us that the current ticketing system is too complicated to navigate. There is a clear need to simplify the way tickets are sold to help passengers take advantage of the cheaper tickets. Any move to simplify websites is a step in the right direction.” - Ends - Photography and screengrabs A selection of high-resolution photography and screengrabs is available on request. Further information - Media Contacts For further information, please contact Vicky Hayes or Jon Clarke at Seal Communications, by phone on 020 7953 4030, or email at [email protected] or the Virgin Trains Press Desk on 0870 789 1111. Virgin Trains Media Information All Virgin Trains Press Releases and general information about our West Coast and CrossCountry operations can be found on the Virgin Trains media website at www.virgintrainsmediaroom.com Also available is a Media Resources section which contains around 100 high-resolution images, which can be freely downloaded for editorial use. You will need to register to access the Media Resource section and you can choose to have our Press Release notifications mailed to you as soon as they are issued. Notes to Editors: *Virgin Trains is the brand name of Virgin Rail Group and operates two rail franchises - West Coast Trains and CrossCountry Trains. Both franchises commenced in 1997. Virgin Rail Group is bidding to win the New Cross Country franchise which is due to start in November 2007. Virgin Group, in partnership with Stagecoach Group plc has also been shortlisted to bid for the Intercity East Coast franchise. *Virgin Rail Group is owned 51 percent by Virgin Group and 49 percent by Stagecoach. *The simplified fares range will be displayed for all fares which are set by Virgin Trains. Fares set by other train operators will not be displayed in the simplified format. *The Saver Half Return ticket can only be purchased in conjunction with another ticket. It can be used for one leg of a return journey where another ticket for the other leg of the journey is bought at the same time. The Saver Half Return fare is only available for bookings made at www.virgin.com/trains *All above fares are single, allowing mix and match of fare types.

Page 2 *Railcard holders can obtain further discounts on the fares shown. *Booking a Value Advance ticket could not be easier. Go online at www.virgintrains.com, call Virgin Trains telesales on 08457 222 333 or visit your local staffed railway station.

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