Virgin Trains to stage a one-off Comedy Coach on a newly refurbished King’s Cross to Edinburgh service

Virgin Trains brings cheer as Brits forget how to laugh

CITY, Country, 2016-Aug-03 — /Travel PR News/ — Comedy Coach unveiled at news that almost two-thirds of Brits haven’t had a good laugh in the last week

Research revealed by Virgin Trains has found that almost 39 million Brits* haven’t laughed out loud in the last week, with three million admitting it’s been over six months without a chuckle.

Despite thinking of ourselves as a nation of funnies (70 per cent), one in ten rating ourselves as hilarious, and 43 per cent ready-armed with at least one joke up our sleeves, it would seem there has been a lack of laughter around in recent weeks.

To tackle this, Virgin Trains has enlisted the help of comedians to give us all a good giggle. With 40 per cent of us choosing stand-up to cheer up, the rail operator has called on the cream of stand-up comedians on its east coast route to stage a one-off Comedy Coach on a newly refurbished King’s Cross to Edinburgh service.

With a line-up that taps into our comedy preferences, and includes Jo Caulfield, Kane Brown and Katie Mulgrew, customers onboard are promised a treat. When it comes to side-splitting laughs, observational humour has 27 per cent of us rolling in the aisles, while 23 per cent crack up at dry wit, and both styles will feature in the gig.

David Horne, managing director, Virgin Trains on the east coast, commented: “At Virgin Trains, we’re all about customer experience and we are delighted to be bringing onboard a flavour of comedy from along our east coast route. Whether our customers are travelling with us to see the Fringe Festival, or making a social or business visit, they can be sure of a barrel of laughs in our Comedy Coach as they are whisked to Edinburgh in speed and style on one of our newly refurbished trains. We’ve just passed the halfway point in our train refurbishment programme on the east coast, and the Comedy Coach is a great way to showcase to our customers the transformations we are already bringing to their journeys.”

The Virgin Trains Comedy Coach will run on the August 9 on the 9.30am train from London King’s Cross to Edinburgh Waverley. For more information on how to get tickets for the Comedy Coach please visitwww.virgintrainseastcoast.com/comedycoach or follow @Virgin_trainsEC #comedycoach.

The research also found that:

Geordies top the tables as the funniest citizens (12 per cent), closely followed by Londoners (11 per cent) and Glaswegians (10 per cent)

• When looking for love, humour is revealed to be an undeniably desirable quality with 40 per cent of women valuing humour over intelligence (20 per cent) in a prospective partner
• Men also rank humour (33 per cent) above other qualities such as a laid back personality (10 per cent)

Notes to Editors

Comedy Coach Line-Up (departs London King’s Cross at 0930am)

London King’s Cross to Peterborough,  Nick Page

Peterborough to Doncaster,  Music Box

Doncaster to York,  Kane Brown

York to Darlington,  Kate Mulgrew

Darlington to Newcastle,  Jo Caulfield

Newcastle to Berwick upon Tweed,  Mike Milligan

Berwick upon Tweed to Edinburgh Waverley,  Ray Bradshaw

Research conducted between 15^th – 20^th July 2016 by One Poll, polling 2000 adults.

*Figure represents 60% of the UK population, based on ONS UK population figures from 2015 of 65.1 million 

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. This includes a major fleet revamp, smarter stations and exciting new routes. From May 2016, there will be 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.

Visit the Virgin Trains Media Room – virgintrains.co.uk/about/media-room – for the latest news, images and videos. Subscribe here for regular news from Virgin Trains.

Press Office:
press.desk@virgintrains.co.uk
0845 000 3333

SOURCE: Virgin Trains

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