Although we might not miss the service provided by Virgin Trains, their April Fools Day japes took quite a lot of beating!

2014

From the Daily Mirror:

It seems Virgin Trains are big film buffs in their spare time.  In honour of the new X-Men movie, “X-Men: Days of Future Past”, the company have renamed Wolverhampton station after its iconic star.

All signage, platform names and station announcements have been changed too.  Hugh Jackman is so far unavailable for comment.

2015

2016

Flying Scotsman sees red

“Virgin Trains has today announced that customers will soon be able to catch a steam train to work, as it’s revealed that the original Flying Scotsman locomotive will be joining its fleet later this year on its East Coast and West Coast routes.”

So said Richard Branson’s jokers, with the special offer of 25% off your ticket “for customers who help shovel coal on their journey”.

To celebrate its arrival, the famed steam train will be given a 21st Century makeover and will be painted with the iconic Virgin Trains red livery, making it the perfect addition to the Virgin family.

The unprecedented announcement comes as the National Railway Museum, which saved the locomotive for the nation in 2004, agreed to release it back into service. The makeover will be taking place at the museum in York, where fans of the iconic engine can watch the transformation as it’s painted during the museum’s fantastic Scotsman Season, running from March 25 to May 8 2016, before fans can really experience the full power of steam.

Jim Lowe, Head of Operations at the National Railway Museum, said: ‘Flying Scotsman has had many different guises throughout its rollercoaster history, and we’re very excited about the steam star’s upcoming transformation. We hope that visitors to the National Railway Museum will be delighted to see locomotive in its new red and white livery as part of our exciting Scotsman Season.’

Hamish Soaring, Head of The Steam Train Rehabilitation Programme said: ‘At Virgin Trains we’re passionate about giving our customers an awesome experience and think that by bringing steam trains back onto our commuter service, we’re doing just that. We would encourage our customers to book the 25 per cent discounted tickets so we can ensure enough coal is being shovelled at all times!’

Flying Scotsman will be available for travel on the east coast route from May 2016 with the service extending to the west coast mainline by the end of the year.

I rather like it…..

2017

Are you stuck over what you should get for a tattoo? Has the inspiration now hit you yet? Or, worse, are you still using paper train tickets like some sort of medieval person? Let Virgin Trains introduce their new contactless ticket system, train tickets permanently tattooed on their body, all done with the magic of Tick-Ink. Chief Innovation Officer at Virgin Trains, John Sullivan, said “We receive hundreds of calls from customers about missing or misplaced season tickets every year and we wanted to provide people with a clever way of always having their ticket on them. What better way than to have it permanently tattooed on their body?” Not sure we’re that die-hard for Virgin Train.

2019

Florida’s Brightline announced that, as part of its evolution to Virgin Trains USA, it would introduce “Convertible Class,” “a shiny happy upgrade … to the world’s first-ever convertible train car.” Along with an illustration of an open-topped coach, the announcement included a link confirming that this was a joke, but offering a genuine one-day-only 50 percent fare sale.

Loss of sense of humour probably went with the loss of franchise…..