Virgin Trains Launches Biggest Ever Standard Class Seat Sale

LONDON, January 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Up to 50,000 Virgin Trains standard class seats are up for grabs at knock down prices with prices starting at £5.50 for a journey between London and Birmingham

Between today and 19 January customers will have the opportunity to bag these incredibly cheap tickets but they will need to be quick as it will be very much first come, first served.

With 106 extra carriages running on Virgin's services resulting in 30% more seats in Standard Class this provides a great opportunity to try out the extra room.

The sale covers journeys between 21 January and 17 March with the exception of 14-24 February and tickets which include seat reservations can be purchased at virgintrains.com , Virgin Trains stations or by calling 0871 977 4222.

Other examples of these attractive one way ticket prices to or from London include Manchester £10.00, Liverpool £10.00, North Wales £11.00, The Lake District £13.00 and Glasgow £17.00.  Tickets are based on travel to or from London and can only be on Virgin Trains services but with some of the United Kingdom's most iconic cities and superb National Parks to choose from make why not make your belated New Year's resolution to have that perfect break.

Notes to Editors

Visit our Media Room website - http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/about/media-room/ for an Image Library of pictures of Virgin Trains and the company's operations, or to subscribe to receive alerts to new press releases.

Virgin Trains has revolutionised rail travel by creating a high speed, high frequency service that has cut journey times and made rail journeys more comfortable. It has operated the West Coast passenger train franchise since 1997, serving key UK cities including London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Preston and Glasgow.

Virgin Trains is the brand name of Virgin Rail Group (VRG), which is owned 51 percent by Virgin Group and 49 percent by Stagecoach. The Department for Transport has awarded VRG a new franchise contract, which started on 9 December 2012 and will run for up to 23 months.

Virgin Trains has been recognised in numerous awards. In September 2012 Business Traveller magazine readers voted the company the Best UK Domestic Rail Operator for the sixth year running. In 2011 the company was named Best Rail Operator in the Group Leisure Awards (which it also won in 2009 and 2010). In 2011 Virgin Trains won the British Quality Foundation's Achievement Award for Customer Satisfaction.

Customers consistently rate the company the top long-distance rail franchise operator, as measured by the National Passenger Survey (NPS) run by industry watchdog Passenger Focus. In the most recent NPS (Spring 2012) overall satisfaction was 91%.

Virgin Trains first achieved Investors In People accreditation in 2007 and this was renewed in 2010; the IIP Gold award was achieved in 2011. In May 2011 Virgin Trains was awarded accreditation against the criteria of the European Foundation for Quality Management's (EFQM) Excellence Model. The company's Learning and Development team won a National Training Awards 2011 West Midlands award for its Coaching Culture programme.

For more information about Virgin Trains visit the company's website http://www.virgintrains.com or the Media Room website http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/about/media-room.