Pamper someone with a Hamper
WITH Christmas just around the corner, the Telegraph, Heart of England Co-operative Society and FedEx Express Warwickshire depots have joined forces so you can make this Christmas extra-special for someone.
Returning for its 16th consecutive year, the Pamper with a Hamper Christmas campaign will be helping to spread some festive cheer.
This year to celebrate the Christmas spirit, we will be giving away 140 hampers to people over the age of 65, all packed with goodies from Heart of England Co-operative Food stores ranging from teabags and biscuits to festive favourites like mince pies and Christmas puddings.
Graeme Brown, interim editor of the Telegraph, said: “Every year Pamper with a Hamper makes the festive season that little bit more special for people in our community, it’s a wonderful thing to be a part of.”
Ali Kurji, Chief Executive of the Heart of England Co-operative Society, added, “Once again we are delighted to partner the Coventry Telegraph with the Pamper with a Hamper
campaign through our Helping Hearts Award scheme.”
Pamper with a Hamper is one of 4,900 initiatives supported by the Helping Hearts Award scheme with more than £1 million pledged since its launch.
The Heart of England Cooperative Society is one of the region’s largest independent retailers in the Coventry, Warwickshire, South Leicestershire and Northamptonshire areas. This year, Pamper with a Hamper will be supported by FedEx Express, the world’s largest express transportation company. With its UK head office based in Atherstone, the business employs 13,000 team members across the UK.
VIRGIN Trains is set to depart Coventry for the final time in just a few weeks.
The company, which manages Coventry Railway Station, lost the franchise to run the West Coast Mainline earlier this year, and come December 8, First Trenitalia will take over.
To say goodbye to passengers who have been able to travel on Virgin Trains since its inception in 1997, the company has released a tongue-incheek video featuring Richard Branson, and other celebrities from the past 22 years.
These include TV legends such as Mr Blobby, Chris Kamara, and Shaun Williamson, better known as Barry from Eastenders.
The train company said that they released the clip as “a final journey”, tracking the years that the familiar Virgin branded trains have been speeding up and down the railways.
It features Branson, a case of Virgin Trains employees, and the celebrity cameos lipsyncing to (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life from Dirty Dancing.
He said: “Virgin Trains has led the UK rail industry for over 20 years, delivering faster journeys, ground-breaking innovation and awardwinning customer service.
“Our 3,500 people are at the heart of the business and are the stars of this video, which celebrates the amazing work they have done to become the top-rated franchise in the UK today.
“We’ve had the time of our life serving our customers and wanted to celebrate the fun we have had with them since 1997.”
During their time, Virgin Trains is thought to have taken almost 500 million passengers from A to B - nearly trebling passenger numbers.
What’s more, they also brought in the Pendolino trains, replacing the old British Rail trains .
Phil Whittingham, MD, Virgin Trains, said: “Of course we’re extremely sad that Virgin Trains is disappearing as a train operator, but we wanted to leave as we entered: by having fun.
“We’re immensely proud of our track record over more than two decades and hope our customers enjoyed travelling with us as much as we enjoyed serving them.”
As of December 8, Coventry Railway Station, and the Virgin Trains services which used to call there, will instead be operated by First Trenitalia.
New colours aside, the differences to services will be minimal, at least at first.
It will be the same trains on the tracks albeit with different livery - which is currently being kept under wraps.
And while the nationwide timetable change takes place on December 15, it is not thought that there will be many, if any changes, impacting Coventry.
West Midlands Railways, or CrossCountry services which operate out of Coventry and the surrounding local stations are yet to reveal if they are to make any changes to timetables in December, but after the large scale changes made in May , it is not thought that any drastic changes will be made.
Down the line, larger changes are likely from First Trenitalia, but it is thought that business will remain largely the same over the first few months of their management of the franchise.
Virgin Trains staff will transfer over - and as for Coventry Station, there will be no changes in the short term - branding aside.
At this time, it is unclear if any significant changes will be made in the longer term - given that the large scale railway masterplan is underway.
Coventry City Council’s £82 million project to transform the railway station comes as Coventry was recently said to be the fastest growing station outside of London.
The plans include a new footbridge and canopies, a multi-storey car park, bus interchange, and a second station building facing Warwick Road.