Virgin Trains East Coast

Virgin Trains East Coast is a train operating company in the United Kingdom that operates the InterCity East Coast franchise on the East Coast Main Line between London, Yorkshire, the North East and Scotland. It commenced operations on 1 March 2015, taking over from East Coast.

Virgin Trains East Coast is a joint venture between Stagecoach (90%), and Virgin (10%).

History
In January 2014, FirstGroup, Keolis/Eurostar and Stagecoach/Virgin were announced as the shortlisted bidders for the new InterCity East Coast franchise.

In November 2014, the eight-year franchise was awarded to the Stagecoach/Virgin joint venture company Inter City Railways Limited, and commenced operating on 1 March 2015 trading as Virgin Trains East Coast.

Services
Virgin Trains East Coast took over all of the services operated by East Coast. It categorises its weekday services from London King's Cross into four routes:

Virgin Trains East Coast have committed to introduce extra services to Stirling and Sunderland via Newcastle in December 2015, with services later to be introduced to Huddersfield and Middlesbrough.

Timetable
Basic off-peak timetable service patterns from London King's Cross:


 * Half hourly service to Leeds City
 * 1tph departing at xx:05 calling at Peterborough, Doncaster and Wakefield Westgate
 * 1tph departing at xx:35 calling at Stevenage, Grantham, Doncaster and Wakefield Westgate
 * 1 service extended daily to Bradford Forster Square
 * 1 service extended daily to Skipton
 * 1 service extended daily to Harrogate
 * Half hourly service to Newcastle Central
 * 1tph (semi-fast service) departing at xx.30 calling at Peterborough, Newark North Gate, Doncaster, York, Northallerton, Darlington and Durham. These services are extended at peak hours to Edinburgh calling at Alnmouth.
 * 1tph (London - Edinburgh express service) departing at xx.00 calling at York and Darlington. Late evening services terminate at Newcastle calling at other stations on route.
 * 1 semi-fast service is extended daily to Glasgow Central via Edinburgh.


 * Hourly service to Edinburgh Waverley (express service)
 * 1tph departing at xx.00 calling at York, Darlington, Newcastle Central and Berwick-upon-Tweed
 * 3 trains extended daily to Aberdeen via Dundee
 * 1 train extended daily to Inverness via Stirling and Perth


 * Hourly service to Newark North Gate extended every two hours to York
 * 1tph departing at xx.20 calling at all stations on route.
 * 1 service extended daily to Newcastle
 * 1 service extended daily to Lincoln

Rolling stock
Virgin Trains East Coast commenced operating with rolling stock transferred from East Coast. Most driving vehicles received a Virgin logo within the first 3 days of the franchise, and all trains will receive a full Virgin Trains East Coast livery by the end of August 2015. £21 million will then be invested between August 2015 and August 2017 in improving these trains by increasing reliability, refreshing toilets and replacing seat covers, carpets, tables and on-board signage.

Virgin Trains East Coast will participate in the Intercity Express Programme along with First Great Western. The project will replace the Intercity 125 and InterCity 225 fleets with new Hitachi Class 800/Class 801 high-speed trains. By December 2018 the new trains are planned to be running on the East Coast Main Line in 9-carriage and 5-carriage sets.

The fleet is maintained at Bounds Green, Neville Hill, Heaton and Craigentinny depots.

Loyalty scheme
One of the initial announcements upon winning the franchise was that the popular East Coast Rewards loyalty scheme would be closed down and replaced with a choice of Nectar or Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles. Both schemes will give 2 points per pound spent on Virgin Trains East Coast services only, unlike East Coast Rewards points will not be earned on travel on other rail services. At the time of closure East Coast Rewards had over 670,000 members. For a limited period members will be able to use up their East Coast Rewards points on the regular catalogue of rewards or convert their points to Nectar. The new scheme offers a substantially worse redemption rate than the old one did up to January 2015; a purchase of £300 of first class tickets under the old system would have given a complimentary first class single ticket, but under the new system merely gives a £3 travel credit for Virgin Trains East Coast advances.