Virgin's bid for the East Coast Main Line franchise included a flamboyant gesture of the kind we have come to expect from Richard Branson. He wants to run Europe's fastest trains on a parallel track.
Leaving aside the huge practical obstacles - what would Virgin do with all those houses next to the railway embankment? - there is another good reason for treating this plan with a pinch of scepticism: Virgin rail's track record. Its West Coast line service is poor, expensive and unpopular.
Meanwhile GNER, though not perfect, has established a fast and efficient service between Edinburgh and London. The company has also pledged to keep its headquarters, and 300 jobs, in York. Its bosses know it takes more than a flamboyant gesture to run a railway.
see NEWS 'Virgin plans 205mph trains to York'
2000 Newsquest (York) Ltd
Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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