EXTRA carriages are set to be made available on the West Coast Main Line from April after rail minister Theresa Villiers announced an extension to Virgin Trains’ existing franchise contract to operate its services.
The line, which stretches from London to Glasgow via Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool and North Wales, will now be run by Virgin Trains until December 9, 2012. It was due to expire at the end of March next year.
Over the course of the extension, three new 600-seat Pendolino trains will be added to the line.
This is in addition to the new Pendolino which entered service in July this year.
In addition, 31 existing Pendolinos will be lengthened from nine to 11 carriages, increasing the number of standard class seats on each train from 320 to 470.
In total, 106 new carriages are being introduced on the route making 28,000 extra seats available each day, the government said.
Ms Villiers said: “When this extension expires, the government will have completed a competition for a new operator to run services on the line under a new longer style of franchise which gives the operator more incentive to invest and more freedom to innovate and deliver for passengers.
“These extra seats are great news for passengers, but in the longer term, even with these improvements, the route is expected to be full by 2024.
This is why we are considering proposals for a high speed rail line between London, the West Midlands, Manchester, Leeds and potentially beyond.”
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