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Rolling Stock Virgin Trains - Question

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jaapstam

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Hello guys,

I am currently on my five days "railways the whole day" tour through your wonderful country.
Can anyone please help me with an advise whether Virgin Trains uses its Pendolinos or its Voyagers on their direct services between Edinburgh and Birmingham New Street?

Thank you very much in advance!

Kind regards
Chris
 
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Kite159

Kite159

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It's a mixed bag.

The good thing with Virgin is that if you look at the service on RealTimeTrains, it will say if it's a 390 or Voyager.
 
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jaapstam

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Kite159 said:
It's a mixed bag.

The good thing with Virgin is that if you look at the service on RealTimeTrains, it will say if it's a 390 or Voyager.
Click to expand...

Thank you Kite159 for your quick response. As I seem to be too stupid for RTT (via mobile and onboard a train with lousy connection), any information you can provide on the 0652 southwards from Edinburgh this Friday?
 
LNW-GW Joint

LNW-GW Joint

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jaapstam said:
Thanks a lot The Grew!
Remains only one question: why does Virgin operate Voyagers at all if they can go electric the whole way? Not enough Pendolinos in the fleet?
Click to expand...

The Edinburgh/Glasgow-Preston-Birmingham service started as a Cross Country service (when Virgin ran it), and continued to Bristol/Reading so needed diesels.
At the last franchise change Arriva took over most of Cross Country, but Virgin kept the Edinburgh/Glasgow-Preston Birmingham service, still running diesels.
More recently they rejigged the diagrams so that 390s ran most of the services, but there aren't enough to displace all the Voyagers.
Voyagers are also used on London-Chester/Shrewsbury/North Wales services as they run away from the wires.
 
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jaapstam

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LNW-GW Joint said:
The Edinburgh/Glasgow-Preston-Birmingham service started as a Cross Country service (when Virgin ran it), and continued to Bristol/Reading so needed diesels.
At the last franchise change Arriva took over most of Cross Country, but Virgin kept the Edinburgh/Glasgow-Preston Birmingham service, still running diesels.
More recently they rejigged the diagrams so that 390s ran most of the services, but there aren't enough to displace all the Voyagers.
Voyagers are also used on London-Chester/Shrewsbury/North Wales services as they run away from the wires.
Click to expand...

Great, once again learned something new :)

Stay tuned as I might pop in with more questions ;)
 
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TBSchenker

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LNW-GW Joint said:
At the last franchise change Arriva took over most of Cross Country, but Virgin kept the Edinburgh/Glasgow-Preston Birmingham service, still running diesels.
Click to expand...

And that's how Transpennine ended up running to Glasgow and Edinburgh from Manchester! The original XC had the Reading/Birmingham-Scotland train running via Manchester, the performance was dire so it was diverted to run direct to Preston from Stafford, this required a XC service to run from Manchester, which used to be run by 158s or occasionally 2+2 HSTs . There was a service from Liverpool run by 158s too which coupled at Preston.

I'm unsure what happened post 1997 as that is a period when I lost interest in the railways for a few years, but I seem to recall when the franchise's were once again realigned (LNW-Joint refers) TPE were approached to run direct Scotland-Manchester services due to XC not running north of Manchester on the WCML. TPE started with a handful a day but now they are every two hours from Glasgow and Edinburgh, with 3 trains a day from Liverpool due to start soon.
 
_toommm_

_toommm_

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TBSchenker said:
And that's how Transpennine ended up running to Glasgow and Edinburgh from Manchester! The original XC had the Reading/Birmingham-Scotland train running via Manchester, the performance was dire so it was diverted to run direct to Preston from Stafford, this required a XC service to run from Manchester, which used to be run by 158s or occasionally 2+2 HSTs . There was a service from Liverpool run by 158s too which coupled at Preston.

I'm unsure what happened post 1997 as that is a period when I lost interest in the railways for a few years, but I seem to recall when the franchise's were once again realigned (LNW-Joint refers) TPE were approached to run direct Scotland-Manchester services due to XC not running north of Manchester on the WCML. TPE started with a handful a day but now they are every two hours from Glasgow and Edinburgh, with 3 trains a day from Liverpool due to start soon.
Click to expand...

2+2 HSTs?
 
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driver_m

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Voyagers were also used on Liverpool-Edinburghs until Op. Princess started. Manchester - Scotlands were also voyager operated for some time after until TPE took over.
 
sprinterguy

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Doomotron said:
They do seem a bit... Small.
Click to expand...
Virgin Crosscountry used to operate whatever stock they could muster each day! There's a photo out there somewhere of one of the Manchester - Scotland 2+2 HSTs wearing three different liveries: Virgin, Intercity and a hired in power car from GNER.
Doomotron said:
Virgin 158s?
Click to expand...
Yes, Virgin Crosscountry used to operate 158747 - 751. They retained Regional Railways 'Express' livery, in fact 158750 became the last 158 to do so after it transferred to Arriva Trains Northern.
 
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