Is this simply an attempt by Virgin to stay in the West Coast market by any means now? I feel like this is an 'attack' on London Northwestern Railway, who have seen huge success with the Trent Valley services, and their launch of direct London to Liverpool trains last month with advances of £12 one way. It is also a future attack on the future West Coast Partnership operator, using knowledge that they have learnt during their 20 years of operating the same franchise - it can be deduced that London to Liverpool may be one of the most money lucrative and profitable markets they currently operate on and acts as a cash cow to the franchise.
I don't know where they will fit the paths in and what stock they will use that is tilting, 125 mph. Could it be redundant Hull Trains 180s that will be overhauled (possibly with tilting functions if they're willing to pay for this and it works out to be cheaper than new) and maintained by Alstom? However raises the issue of diesel under the wires which I imagine would incur a heavier track access charge if I understand it correctly (please correct if I am wrong). Only existing stock I can think of that would work but even then needs some work.
My two cents on this, the impression I am reading is a mixture of things. They're clearly desperate to stay on the West Coast mainline. They're smart for using knowledge they have accumulated for 20 years to plan and achieve this. They're also smart in trying to appeal to irregular 'I am off to the other side of the country to see my nan this Bank Holiday' sort of customer who adores airline style travelling and is more likely a car driver. They're however coming across as heavily unrealistic with their expectations that they will be enforcing reservations on literally every train and could lose out on walk up customers particularly on quiet trains. Also unrealistic they haven't any stock at all to do this officially speaking.
This will be an interesting and clearly political development, potentially a very expensive one but I wait with an open mind to see what the outcome of this is.