- Virgin service carries city delegation to London to submit bid
London, 2017-May-02 — /Travel PR News/ — Perth’s bid for 2021 City of Culture status was seen off in style today (Apr 27, 2017 ) by Virgin Trains.
A delegation representing Scotland’s newest city boarded Virgin’s Highland Chieftain service this morning at Perth Station to take the bid for submission in London later today.
Perth’s submission for the heavily-feted City of Culture awards was approved by Perth & Kinross Council on Wednesday and is one of 11 bids due to be submitted from around Britain ahead of the deadline tomorrow.
Martin Griffiths, the Stagecoach Chief Executive who helped see off the bid team, said it was an “historic day” for the city.
“With Stagecoach’s global headquarters in Perth, we have a long and very close relationship with this great city. I was delighted to Perth’s city status reaffirmed in 2012 and it is a source of great pride to see the bid for City of Culture carried down to London by a Virgin train on this historic day. We wish them every bit of luck,” he said.
Stagecoach is one of two shareholders, along with Virgin Group, in Virgin Trains’ east coast and west coast businesses.
Provost Liz Grant said the City of Culture bid was an opportunity to help bolster Perth’s reputation around the world. She said: “It’s an exciting day for Perth as we wave off our Stage 1 bid to be UK City of Culture 2021. Perth’s bid is different to the usual approach to cultural regeneration: we want to use culture to address the complex needs of small cities and large towns that can sometimes be overlooked. At the moment, too much of our local talent is leaving for the big cities. But working together with communities, harnessing the power of new technologies and bringing world class cultural opportunities to everyone will revitalise our small businesses and make Perth the place to be for creative, entrepreneurial people. I’d like to thank Stagecoach and Virgin Trains for their support for Perth. Having local employers on board is vital on our journey towards making Perth a place where culture is a springboard for economic prosperity.”
About Virgin Trains:
Stagecoach and Virgin are working in partnership to operate the East Coast and West Coast inter-city routes under the Virgin Trains brand. Together, they are on track to revolutionise rail travel across the UK.
The combined network connects some of the nation’s most iconic destinations including Glasgow, Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds, York and London.
Virgin Trains is committed to delivering a high speed, high frequency service, offering shorter journey times, more comfortable travel and excellent customer service. Customers consistently rate Virgin Trains as one of the top long-distance rail franchise operators in the National Rail Passenger Survey (NRPS) commissioned by industry watchdog, Transport Focus.
On the East Coast route, £140m is being invested to create a more personalised travel experience. We have already invested £21m to completely revamp our existing fleet and customers can now benefit from 42 additional services (22,000 extra seats) per week between Edinburgh and London. 2018 will see the introduction of completely new Azuma trains being built in the UK by Hitachi.
The West Coast route has a proud record of challenging the status quo – from introducing tilting Pendolino trains, to a pioneering automated delay repay scheme and becoming the first franchised rail operator to offer m-Tickets for all ticket types.
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Source: Virgin Trains