Virgin Trains tops of league of shame for delays

THE firm running the main rail route between Birmingham and London was among the country’s worst for significant delays last year, according to new research.

Virgin Trains West Coast was ranked second in a league of shame behind sister company Virgin Trains East Coast.

West Coast operates the Coast Main Line, the key between Birmingham New and London Euston.

But two per cent of journeys ran between 30 minutes to two hours late in 2016/17, according to the analysis of Office of Rail and Road (ORR) data.

Which? managing West route Street director of public markets Alex Hayman said delays suffered by passengers are “even more infuriating ” when they struggled to claim compensation.

A Virgin Trains spokesman said: “Clearly, it’s harder to run trains exactly to time over a 400-mile route, and around 80 per cent of delays are outside of our control.

“But we always want to do the best for our passengers which is why we make claiming for delays as easy as possible and introduced industry-leading automatic compensation on our West Coast route.”

Meanwhile, rail commuters are spending up to five times as much of their salary on season tickets as passengers on the continent, a new study has revealed.

Fares rose by an average of 3.4 per cent this week, the biggest increase since 2013, covering unregulated fares such as off-peak leisure tickets, although season tickets will go up by 3.6 per cent, sparking protests outside railway stations across the country.

One route from Birmingham has gone up be more than £2,500 for a season pass since 2010.

The average traveller will be paying £2,888 for their season ticket, £694 a year more than in 2010, according to Labour’s analysis. It said fares had risen three times faster than wages in the period.

The biggest percentage increase identified was between Tame Bridge Parkway and Nuneaton, where the cost of an annual season ticket will have risen by 50 per cent since 2010, from £1,948 to £2,916.