UK: Virgin Trains looks to take on airlines as London-Edinburgh passengers hit 1m

Virgin Trains has vowed to take on airlines for a share of the lucrative London to Edinburgh route after rail passenger numbers swelled to 1m a year for the first time. The train operator said that it was gaining share of the travel corridor after an 8% increase in passengers compared to last year while air travel traffic has remained static. Passengers travelling by rail now make up a third of the traffic between the capital cities, up 2 percentage points from last year, and Virgin Trains plans to gain half the market by 2023. The ambitious goal would reverse a 40-year trend that has seen airlines dominate the route. Virgin’s ambitions for the East Coast Line come amid growing criticism of the operator over its plan to hike the price of unregulated fares by an average of 5.5% in 2017. <br/>