page_title: Virgin Trains
section_title: Passenger numbers
hierarchical_section_title: Virgin Trains / Performance / Passenger numbers
caption_attribution_description: English: Virgin Trains West Coast passenger numbers in the previous year from 2011 to 2017.&#91;1&#93;&#91;2&#93;
context_page_description: Virgin Trains was a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Virgin Rail Group, a joint venture between Virgin Group and Stagecoach, which operated the InterCity West Coast franchise from 9 March 1997 to 7 December 2019. The franchise covered long-distance passenger services on the West Coast Main Line between London, West Midlands, North West England, North Wales and Scotland, subsequently connecting six of the UK's largest cities: London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh, which have a combined metropolitan population of over 18 million. Virgin Trains had around 3,400 employees in 2015.
  The Virgin Trains brand was also used on the legally and operationally separate Virgin Trains East Coast from 2015 until 2018, and previously on Virgin CrossCountry, which operated between 1997 and 2007.
  The contract expired on 7 December 2019 and Virgin did not contest retaining the franchise after its joint venture partner Stagecoach was disqualified due to an invalid bid in April 2019. Since being succeeded by Avanti West Coast, Virgin Rail Group plan to transition the previous Virgin Trains company into a ticket-buying service.
caption: Virgin Trains West Coast passenger numbers in the previous year from 2011 to 2019.[38][39]
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