Virgin Trains East Coast has reached its 100th day operating long distance cross border rail services on the East Coast Main Line. Since its launch on March 1st 2015, Virgin Trains East Coast has operated 13,834 services and carried more than 4.3 million customers.

The first Virgin Trains Pendolino to have one of its First Class carriages converted to Standard is now in service. The train, which also received a major interior refresh and a deep clean as part of the work, marks the first of the 21nine-car Pendolinos to have a carriage converted.

A joint venture between Stagecoach Transport and Virgin Rail has been awarded the franchise for the East Coast mainline. The firms have agreed to invest £140 million in the route over eight years, and will pay the government £3.3 billion for the contract. The deal will be finalised pending the successful completion of a standstill period of at least ten days.

A new deal for rail services on the West Coast Main Line that will bring thousands more seats, free wi-fi and pave the way for new journeys on the route has been awarded to Virgin, transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin has announced. The direct award contract will run for two years and nine months and see the train operator continue to provide vital passenger journeys between London, Scotland and Wales as the government forges ahead with its multi-billion pound investment to improve and maintain our railways.

Virgin Trains’ First Class lounge at London Euston station is to get its swagger back in March 2014 after seven weeks of refurbishments, starting on 31 January 2014.

This autumn, Virgin Trains is launching the UK’s first ever on board ‘high speed’ book signings on its West Coast route. A host of well-known authors have been confirmed, including renowned Scandi-crime writer, Jo Nesbo, highly acclaimed British writer Joanna Trollope, who is launching The Austen Project with a reworking of Jane Austen’s Sense & Sensibility and renowned comedian and author, Ruby Wax.