http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/m...ondon_to_manchester_trains_every_20_mins.html
London to Manchester trains every 20 mins
PLANS for trains every 20 minutes between London and Manchester were announced today by Sir Richard Branson.
The Virgin Trains' chief also said his company intended to bid for the CrossCountry rail route following the Government decision to end Virgin's franchise early.
The 20-minute frequency for London-Manchester will be introduced in 2008 on Virgin's other rail franchise - the West Coast Main Line.
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Virgin also announced that three services an hour will run between Birmingham and London under plans being finalised with the Government and Network Rail (NR).
The company also said it hoped that it could raise the speed of its West Coast tilting Pendolino trains from 125mph to 135mph.
Other plans for the West Coast line include:
* Hourly Glasgow-London services
* 30-minute peak-time frequency on Liverpool-London, more trains between London and North Wales and hourly services between London to Chester
* First trials of e-ticketing and a new website to make ticket-buying easier
* A trial of personal chauffeur services for passengers
* Mobile telephone links on trains.
In recent years following the demise of Railtrack and the delays to the completion of the West Coast modernisation, Virgin has run both its West Coast and CrossCountry franchises on a year-by-year contract in close contact with the Department for Transport (DfT).
Franchise
Last October, the DfT said it was ending this "letter arrangement" on CrossCountry and would be re-letting a reconstituted CrossCountry franchise in autumn 2007. Virgin had originally been given the franchise until 2012.
Today Sir Richard said that Virgin intended to bid for CrossCountry and told Virgin staff in a website broadcast: "We've started so we'll finish."
Separately, Sir Richard said today: ""There were many cynics who just laughed at our plans when we launched the franchises. They said it could never be done, and at one point even I briefly wondered if they might have been right.
"But we persevered and the Virgin rail operation of today is a shining example of what can be achieved with the right vision."
Pendolinos
Virgin, which operates more than 50 Pendolinos, has seen passengers rise on West Coast from 15.4 million in 1998-99 to 18.7 million in 2005-06, while over the same period CrossCountry passengers have risen from 13.6 million to 20.4 million.
Virgin Trains chief executive Tony Collins said today: "We need to look now at more Pendolino trains and more carriages on the existing trains, otherwise we will inhibit further growth. We also need to improve car parking at stations.
"These are not some vague ideas for the future; they are real issues that we are already progressing. We also have trains that can travel at 140mph, but are restricted to 125mph. We are talking with Network Rail about running at 135mph on some parts of the route. We believe we can do this, not in 20 years' time, or even 10 years' time - but from 2008."