Virgin Trains

there was that galaxy ad in like 2014 for galaxy chocolate with audrey hepburn and i was like what the fuck audrey hepburn didn't agree to be shilling this chocolate and i guess at the time that was novel and now it's so ubiquitous that people do have to contract what is going to happen to their likeness after their deaths but

it's gross to me it is it's a bit gross i remember the audrey hepburn one for virgin trains as well i seem to remember we talked about that on the show when it was contemporary I felt with that, at least, because it was, you know, 10, 15 years pre-AI, that because the technology was being used at all, it's the first time you've seen someone taken from an old Hollywood movie, colourised and put in an ad.

The technology itself was really what was selling that ad rather than Audrey Hepburn.

She might not have agreed to it, but no one really thought that Audrey Hepburn caught Virgin Trains because everyone knew she was dead.

But what's weird about this is it's the kind of insinuation that if you're clever like Einstein, you would do this.

It's a straight corollary for that.

Epsfleet and at Ashford and Eurostar has no imagination to possibly think why anyone would want to go anywhere from London St Pancras other than to Paris.

Now that means other operators be it Virgin Trains or Train Italia or potentially this UK startup Gemini do actually see an opportunity to run to different stations run with different trains with a different operating model and and to actually make much better use of that good bit of infrastructure that the UK has got.

So ultimately, I'm actually quite optimistic about towards the end of this decade, what we might see in the future through the Channel Tunnel.

Because there, ultimately, you've got good infrastructure standing underutilized.

I absolutely loved it.

Over the years, I've worked on Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Holidays, Virgin Trains, Virgin Money, and there might be a couple of others.

And now we're back to working with Virgin Atlantic and Holidays again.

So it's funny how these things come around.

[chuckles]

... application from Virgin Trains, which was almost like a mini West Coast timetable.

It was, wasn't it? [chuckles]

Yeah, well, maybe not that mini actually, right.

Okay.

It used to be faster when it used to be Virgin Trains, but now it's Avanti trains, so if you have a look, and it just takes a little bit longer now.

Okay.

And does that go into the city, and then you have to take another one out of the...? Or does it go all the way out to the airport in Heathrow?

But things may be about to change.

On the 13th of August, 2026, the Office of Rail and Road announced the pre-approval of Virgin Trains' track access agreement on the high-speed line between London and the Channel Tunnel.

Other operators are keen to join them, including Trenitalia and Gemini Trains as two of the front runners.

Not before time, some would say.

good yeah is it i can't tell we can't tell if it's full length it's coming out the tunnel but yeah

I think it is, because I think there's a photo in the article showing a Virgin Trains one.

Yeah, a Virgin

Trains one,

And then you see it on a, on a higher level, like, you know, when the, when Virgin Galactic crashed, same thing.

You know, he went over there and, and when there was a big crash for the Virgin, I forgot what they're called, Virgin Rail, Virgin Train, same thing of like just holding that space.

So it's like, again, what you see in the public and what you see behind the scenes matched.

And that, that to me is my favorite kind of people.

Actually, this might be a thing.

Virgin trains don't exist anymore, do they? Who bought them out? But we don't know.

Did Avanti West Coast buy them out? Because that would make sense.

That would make sense.

What a show this is.

We're straight in.

It does make sense, though, that Avanti West Coast brought Virgin out because Virgin Trains was never going to work.

I'm no expert in the locomotive industry.