In 1996 Virgin Trains won the CrossCountry and West Coast franchises and, the following year, the famous Virgin flair hit the railways. A truly national network, Virgin Trains covers vast areas of Britain.
London Euston is the gateway to the 401 mile-long West Coast Main Line, with services to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Preston, North Wales and Glasgow.
| 6 January 1997 |
Virgin Trains starts the CrossCountry franchise and promises to replace the existing fleet with new Voyager and Super Voyager trains
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| 9 March 1997 |
Virgin Trains starts the West Coast franchise
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| 23 February 1999 |
Sir Richard Branson launches www.thetrainline.com
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| 6 October 2000 |
FastTicket machines introduced at Manchester Piccadilly
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| 5 June 2001 |
First run of a Voyager train in UK with Sir Richard Branson
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| 9 July 2001 |
Pendolino launched at Old Dalby Test Track running at over 100mph and tilting. Massive launch with media and industry opinion formers
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| 12 April 2002 |
First Super Voyager enters traffic between Birmingham and Brighton
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| 30 April 2002 |
First Pendolino into London Euston launched by Sir Richard Branson. Customers invited to view the "shape of travel to come"
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| 23 July 2002 |
First Pendolino enters service following launch by Sir Richard of Birmingham International – Manchester Piccadilly "Commonwealth Games" service.
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| September 2002 |
Operation Princess sees the launch of a new high frequency CrossCountry timetable at an event at the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham.
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| 27 January 2003 |
Sir Richard joins passengers as Pendolinos start running between Manchester and London Euston
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| 30 May 2003 |
Further Pendolino services introduced on Manchester – London Euston and Wolverhampton – London Euston services
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| 11 August 2003 |
First Pendolino in service between Preston and London Euston
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| 17 August 2003 |
Voyagers begin operating at 125mph between Birmingham and Derby on completion of £220m CrossCountry route upgrade.
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| 20 October 2003 |
Sir Richard launches Liverpool Pendolino service
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| 5 January 2004 |
Pendolino service starts from Glasgow to London Euston
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| 20 September 2004 |
Red Revolution – the Prime Minister launches the UK’s first-ever 125 mph tilting train timetable at London Euston station.
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| 25 September 2005 |
Three, seven and 14 day booking deadlines scrapped for advance booking tickets. Now available until up to 1800 the day before travel
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| December 2005 |
CrossCountry carries 20 million passengers in a year for the first time
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| April 2006 |
Sir Richard Branson announces his intention to pre-qualify for the new CrossCountry franchise. He also announces plans to introduce trains every 20 minutes between Manchester and London Euston, and Birmingham and London Euston.
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| January 2007 |
We're ten! Seems like just yesterday when we acquired the West Coast and CrossCountry franchises, yet in the past ten years we've accomplished a lot. Click here to find out more about our first ten years.
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