Ran out of money?! | Virgin Trains East Coast - Failed Franchises #16

Briefly worked for VTEC, initially just processing delay repays. Then got put on a project to clear up over a years worth of complaints as they had 'accidentally' marked them all closed and resolved en masse.

VTEC is a lesson (though whether any future government, including the newly elected, at the time of comment, Labour government will heed this remains to be seen) that in spite of certain MP's desire to maintain the franchise system, it doesn't disguise the fact that an incoming franchise can and does over promise and under deliver, resulting in the company awarded with the franchise being unable to fulfill its commitments. The answer is to let the remaining franchises run their course and not renew them, returning them to the Department of Transport

The only winners in the rail franchise debacle seem to be the companies who are constantly rebranding fleets of trains...

Brilliant series. I did find the refresh to be very nice but as you say beyond that there wasn’t much else they achieved.

its amazing to see the evolution of the east coast mainline. I would prefer the Intercity 125 and 225 fleet over the 80X trains. Virgin promised to much with the 80x and i believe the intercity fleet from BREL was better. great video

Always a brilliant video

Interesting relationship with Virgin Trains East Coast, without it, I doubt I'd be a rail fan because without its failure we would've never got LNER, the best train operator in the country in my opinion. Service seemed okay on the few occasions I used it but I really noticed and appreciated how much more public service focused LNER are compared to VTEC and just how pleasant train travel can be as a result. My first experience on it as a university student was gone in with the mindset of "I'm probably not going to like this experience of train travel but we're going to have to live with it" then enjoying the experience, then becoming a full on fan of it as LNER made the experience of commuting back and forth from university just painless and even enjoyable.

OMG the first video has a class 67 with Virgin trains east coast!?!?!? Was that in regular service?

Virgin Trains East Coast just like National Express East Coast, Great North Eastern Railway and East Coast were quite good at running good train services on the East Coast Main Line. But they still failed to impress passengers. At least they ordered new Class 800 and Class 801 Azuma trains before they lost the East Coast franchise to London North Eastern Railway in 2017. And the Class 43 HSTs were replaced by the new Azuma trains and some went to GWR and ScotRail.

They had brilliant first class discounts whether weekday or weekend, so it wasn't all that bad. Besides, I didn't really know any operator with that offer other than my grandfather's railway worker pass that gave him first class on all trains!

"Only interested in the money" That right there basically sums up what is wrong with all public services in the UK.

Here's a history lesson for you Vanmanyo. The Highland Chieftain before 1984 was known as The Clansman and originated from London Euston. as for The Northern Lights that was originally The Aberdonian but they changed that to the latter in the early 90's.

Bored in the afternoon ,Nothing to watch. I see this on homepage: ( My eyecandy ) Proud 8th commenter :>

i think the DFT is the main issue with privatisation

It makes me laugh because it's called VTEC Which you get in a Honda VTEC Engine. (VTEC Just Kicked In Yo).

This wasn’t really virgin. Virgin only had 9% of the franchise unlike the WC where they had 51%. It was Stagecoach who ran it, they just paid to use the Virgin name for product recognition.

I remember Virgin Trains when I was younger and that was like... 5 years ago. Rest in peace Virgin Trains... You will be missed :( (And tbh it's sad cause the VT livery really suited the Class 390 and now AWC (Avanti West Coast) has made the 390's look... Horrendous)

Wonder on the 6th July if BR will make a comeback. I totally understand why Privatisation hasn't worked on some Rail lines and why DfT needed to takeover. Yet some are running ok.

Please help me I bought class 90 in british railway but it won't letting me play with it

Virgin livery would’ve looked great on the IETs