ON MAY 27 Britain’s Virgin Trains and Stagecoach Holdings unveiled a package of feeder buses and through ticketing schemes, due to start with the timetable change on May 30. The RailLink initiative has been developed to honour a commitment made to the Office of Passenger Rail Franchising when Stagecoach acquired a 49% stake in Virgin.
Stagecoach is operating dedicated buses in Virgin livery on four routes: Milton Keynes - Luton Airport, Coventry - Stratford-upon-Avon, Macclesfield - Buxton, and Birmingham International - Bromsgrove. Stagecoach’s Workington - Penrith and Cambridge - Oxford buses have been re-routed to call at stations. A £1 add-on fare has been introduced for Stagecoach bus travel within a 3 km radius of 18 stations, including Manchester and Newcastle. n
