How many have missed the comment that Network Rail invest only 1% of their budget in Wales despite there being 6% of track. This hasn’t changed. Rail in Wales is being set up to fail by Westminster and should be devolved as soon as possible.

GNER were one of the better franchise holders. While their initial HST refurb was naff (so much brown!), they knew how to deliver a good service. The hot food form the buffet (especially their Aberdeen Angus cheeseburgers with a white sauce/relish) was top notch and sadly unbeaten today.

I am old enough to remember what Virgin Trains were like when they they started operations. Virgin has always been about style over substance, and while Avanti are bad, the new Virgin Trains would have been exactly the same.

Virgin Trains East Coast just like National Express East Coast and open access franchise East Coast weren’t as good. And VTEC promised to bring better rail services on the East Coast Main Line. But somehow they didn’t. At least they have ordered new Hitachi Class 800 and Class 801 AT300 IETs to replace the Class 43 HST Mk3 and Class 91 Mk4. Which these new trains are now with LNER and are very nice trains.

I wish the narrator would say "Aitch-Ess-Tee", not "Haitch-Ess-Tee".

No you are definitely not being harsh, XC are SHOCKING!! There is so much wrong with the franchise, its difficult to know where to start! I now drive to another area to start a journey just to avoid them, or avoid the train altogether, they are unuseable. I think they have slipped under the radar and never been held to account IMO, while the media focuses on the Northern franchise, XC keeps going from bad to worse. My main thinking is the franchise is simply too big, and have commuters travelling alongside long distance passengers. Take the East/West Midllands for example. XC is one of the very few operators that cross this border. Instead, the west midlands franchises should be extended east semi fast beyond Lichfield to include Burton, Tamworth, Derby and Nottingham. Then the XC long distance routes could run non stop from Brum all the way to Sheffield easing loads over this extremely busy section of railway. The voyager things shouldd be scrapped, they were never suitable in 2002 and are even worse now. I can't believe all this investment is happening to the London commuter rolling stock whilst these cramped, dirty diesel relics live on for another 20 odd years. Incidentally, I never saw that many HSTs on XC routes, in fact I dont think I;ve even travelled on one, its always 4 car voyagers that are full by the time they are 30 minutes into their journey, hopeless. Rant over, but as you can tell I despise this operator wiith a passion. :)

Chiltern game the system - they achieve a low number of cancellations by running short formed trains which are totally packed. 8 or 6 car trains reduced to 2 sometimes - the interiors are threadbare, the wi-fi never workd and they are filthy.

Brilliant series. I did find the refresh to be very nice but as you say beyond that there wasn’t much else they achieved.

i think the DFT is the main issue with privatisation

Virgin should be an open access company….. look at Deutsche Bahn, NS and SNCF/B

Interesting relationship with Virgin Trains East Coast, without it, I doubt I'd be a rail fan because without its failure we would've never got LNER, the best train operator in the country in my opinion. Service seemed okay on the few occasions I used it but I really noticed and appreciated how much more public service focused LNER are compared to VTEC and just how pleasant train travel can be as a result. My first experience on it as a university student was gone in with the mindset of "I'm probably not going to like this experience of train travel but we're going to have to live with it" then enjoying the experience, then becoming a full on fan of it as LNER made the experience of commuting back and forth from university just painless and even enjoyable.

This wasn’t really virgin. Virgin only had 9% of the franchise unlike the WC where they had 51%. It was Stagecoach who ran it, they just paid to use the Virgin name for product recognition.

GNER is my fvavourite train franchise

Worst thing VTEC did was the stupid talking toilets, along witb their general "look at us, aren't we so zany!?"-type marketing. Though i always felt the Virgin brand was style over substance.

Great video you talk alot of sense. needs to back to network rail running the whole lot away from fat cats

Yay new failed franchise - here's to many more

They had brilliant first class discounts whether weekday or weekend, so it wasn't all that bad. Besides, I didn't really know any operator with that offer other than my grandfather's railway worker pass that gave him first class on all trains!

OMG the first video has a class 67 with Virgin trains east coast!?!?!? Was that in regular service?

It makes me laugh because it's called VTEC Which you get in a Honda VTEC Engine. (VTEC Just Kicked In Yo).

Branson ran out of someone else's money would be more correct.Off course nothing to do with him all the Department of Transport and Network Rails fault although he must have known about all this when he got involved.Ah but it's nothing to do with Tricky Dickie as it's Stagecoach who run it although it says Virgin on the trains .

Always a brilliant video

VTEC is a lesson (though whether any future government, including the newly elected, at the time of comment, Labour government will heed this remains to be seen) that in spite of certain MP's desire to maintain the franchise system, it doesn't disguise the fact that an incoming franchise can and does over promise and under deliver, resulting in the company awarded with the franchise being unable to fulfill its commitments. The answer is to let the remaining franchises run their course and not renew them, returning them to the Department of Transport

Briefly worked for VTEC, initially just processing delay repays. Then got put on a project to clear up over a years worth of complaints as they had 'accidentally' marked them all closed and resolved en masse.

29 mins

Bored in the afternoon ,Nothing to watch. I see this on homepage: ( My eyecandy ) Proud 8th commenter :>

13 seconds ago

Its interesting that Go-Ahead have won the contract to run Dartford's bus company, Fast Track. I think it is a shame that they removed Southeastern from Go-Ahead because it was so much better than British Rail and Connex. Southeastern has gone downhill really badly under public ownership. The government removed Southeastern from Go-Ahead as a punishment for keeping the money, however, it is people like me who feel this the most. Go-Ahead are now picking up bus routes and networks where they have lost rail franchises and where rival companies like Arriva have dropped out.

Here's a history lesson for you Vanmanyo. The Highland Chieftain before 1984 was known as The Clansman and originated from London Euston. as for The Northern Lights that was originally The Aberdonian but they changed that to the latter in the early 90's.

Virgin livery would’ve looked great on the IETs

im intreguiged to see next years bid, will greater anglia reign continue???

Wonder on the 6th July if BR will make a comeback. I totally understand why Privatisation hasn't worked on some Rail lines and why DfT needed to takeover. Yet some are running ok.

Virgin should not have lost the Cross-country or West coast main line in my opinion.

Arriva runs London Overground and Chiltern railways very well. I think Arriva was set up to fail with its Northern and Welsh franchises

As a regular user of Cross Country (I mainly go from Reading to Coventry), I will say they are bad but not the worst. Privatisation as a whole was a stupid idea and should never have happened.

Definitely a great company, I went on a few of their trains in 2011, great service and staff

Honestly, should have just left East Coast as it was

The xc service between Cardiff to Nottingham is awful delays or cancelled between new st and Cardiff with various excuses given 😡

Nice video, although I do disagree with some of your points. You talk about the “old and battered mark 3s” and “dilapidated 168s” against GWR’s “bright new IETs”. Chiltern’s mark 3 interiors are absolutely wonderful, probably the most spacious and comfortable seats on the entire network, and their class 168 interiors are also fantastic. The IETs of GWR by contrast are horrible. So I for one am trying to enjoy the older fleet for as long as possible, and believe any refurbishment or replacement of rolling stock in the future can only be a negative thing.

Definitely not a failed franchise in my opinion.