corporate responsibility report - Virgin Trains

a positive
experience
We want more people to travel by train, where it’s possible, rather than plane or car.
We passionately believe rail transport is good for business, good for the planet and good
for the people who live on it.
Our customers expect us to get them to their destination, on time and in comfort, at
reasonable cost. This is the basic promise that we must, and do, deliver as a successful
business.
But we go further. Our brand and our strategy are based around giving people the most
valuable use of their time. If we’re going to be a sustainable business, then we need to
maximise ease of access, and quality of the journey.
What we’re doing
Getting to the station
Stoke-on-Trent station, which is managed by Virgin Trains, was chosen to be one of the pilots
in a national Station Travel Plan (STP) project. Working with Stoke City Council, we promoted a
range of travel options to improve access and reduce traffic. The plan involved the promotion
of sustainable modes of travel (such as walking, cycling, public transport, car clubs and car
sharing) as alternatives to single-occupancy car use.
Integrated transport – that’s what our plans at Stoke were all about. It’s jargon for looking at
the whole journey, from your front door to the door you want to get to. We want people to
make the bulk of that journey by train, and we want to make the whole journey easier and
more sustainable.
That’s why we’re taking practical actions such as working toward integrating the rail timetable
with bus services, publishing walking routes, and promoting the use of secure cycle storage.
Our partnership with Brompton Docks has proved successful, with docks located at Stoke-on-
Trent and Manchester Piccadilly stations.
We believe that electric cars will continue to expand and develop, and so we’ve got the ball
rolling to install electric car sharing points to a number of our managed stations. There’s little
point in having an electric car if there’s no where to charge it – don’t worry we’ve got it sussed!
Once you’ve made your low carbon journey to our stations we want the rest of your journey
to be one of ease and comfort. That’s why we’ve made access to stations, like Preston’s
subway, easier; we’ve made our service information during disruption clearer and we’ve made
improvements to lighting and security so you feel safer. All this is continually reviewed and
transferred throughout the route.
We will continue to work with interested parties, such as Local Authorities and the Department
for Transport, to share ‘what’s worked and what hasn’t’ so policy makers and operators can
learn the lessons from this approach.
8 9