Rolling Stock
Virgin inherited a fleet of Class 47s, Class 86s, Mark 2 Carriages, High Speed Trains and Class 158s from British Rail. Class 47s on hire from EWS and Fragonset were also fairly common. A franchise commitment was the replacement of these trains with new stock. In December 1998 Virgin signed a deal to lease 34 four-carriage Class 220 Voyagers and 40 five-carriage and four four-carriage Class 221 Super Voyagers built by Bombardier Transportation. The latter were intended for use by Virgin West Coast on services from London Euston to Holyhead although they ended up being pooled with the other Voyagers. When Virgin West Coast started using Class 221 Super Voyagers on Holyhead services in September 2004, the five-carriage units were used.
The Class 221 Super Voyagers were fitted with equipment allowing them to tilt between Oxford and Banbury and on the West Coast Main Line. The first Class 220 Voyager arrived from Belgium in January 2001 and entered service on 21 May 2001. The last Class 47s, Class 86s and Mark 2 carriages were withdrawn in August 2002.
After experiencing rapid growth Virgin CrossCountry decided to retain some High Speed Trains sets. In December 2001 it announced plans to refurbish eight High Speed Trains as Virgin Challengers for use on proposed services from London Paddington to Manchester Piccadilly via Cheltenham with the option to refurbish more. In the wake of the collapse of Operation Princess, the project was cancelled with the remaining HSTs withdrawn in September 2003 on the instruction of the Strategic Rail Authority.
To provide extra stock for services on Summer Saturday services to Paignton and Newquay, Virgin hired High Speed Trains from GNER, Midland Mainline and Virgin West Coast and Mark 3B loco hauled carriages from Virgin West Coast. In 2004 Virgin hired Class 67s from EWS and Mark 2 Carriages from Riviera Trains to operate Summer Saturday services to Paignton.
A standby set of Mark 2 carriages was leased from Riviera Trains from September 2004. It was usually used between Birmingham New Street and Manchester Piccadilly with a EWS Class 90 although it did run to Newcastle with a Class 57/3 in January 2007.
High Speed Trains were hired from Midland Mainline on a number of occasions to operate services from Edinburgh Waverley to Plymouth when Voyagers were unavailable.
Read more about this topic: Virgin CrossCountry
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