History of Virgin
Virgin Trains was born on 29th of November 1996 when it was awarded the Cross Country franchise following the privatisation of British Rail, the franchise will last until April 2012. Along with the Cross Country line, Virgin also won the West Coast franchise and took control on the 9th of March 1997, this franchise will end in March 2012. The West Coast line was the last but one of the franchises to be handed over to the private sector, all of which had been completed in less than three-and-a-half years after the Railways Act had been passed.
Virgin Trains' own definition of the company is on its website, www.virgintrains.co.uk. They describe the company as A truly national network, Virgin Trains covers vast areas of Britain.'
Structure of the Company
Virgin Trains is owned and run by Virgin Management and Stagecoach Plc. The Virgin Management team are the majority shareholders and own 51% of the company as opposed to Stagecoach which owns 49%. Virgin Trains is managed by a board known as Virgin Rail Group and is made up of the Virgin Management team and Stagecoach.
Appendix 1.
To give an idea of the size of Virgin Trains, I have prepared a number of facts and figures that were gathered in 2004.
Turnover in 2004 amounted to £579 million.
Members of staff employed by Virgin Trains reached 4748.
Total passengers per annum was recorded at 34.1 million.
Train miles per annum was a staggering 31.6 million.
It is clear that Virgin Trains is truly a national company, both in terms of its size outlined by the figures above but also by the areas that it serves.
Appendix 2.
The geographical map above shows the extent to which Virgin Trains operates throughout the country...
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...e of which omit high levels of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Pressure groups are able to use media sources to give companies a bad image and this is a major threat not only to Virgin but also other transport operators around the world. Richard Branson has recently announced that he is to donate all profits from Virgin Trains and Virgin Airlines to combat global warming. This is likely to keep the pressure groups away from Virgin at least for the time being.
References
Appendix 1.
A report by Virgin on ownership and structure of the company. http://www.virgintrainsmediaroom.com/media.
Appendix 2.
A section of the Virgin trains website that provides network maps and geographical maps.
http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/travelling_with_us/our_network
Trends data.
Data on the company and industry.
http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/nrt0405-yr-rev.pdf
The following value chain, which focuses on Spirit Airlines, is representative of most of the firms in the Ultra Low-Cost Airline industry. Spirit is the industry leader in many areas such as operational efficiencies/cost structure, aircraft fleet management, brand/network and growth. The firm, however, trails industry foes in areas such as customer service and operational reliability and recoverability. While most in this segment pursue the cost-leader competitive strategy, Spirit has demonstrated the most effective model to date – whether the model is the most sustainable remains to be seen.
Westjet has a unique corporate spirit: To enrich the lives of everyone in WestJet's world by providing safe, friendly and affordable air travel (2). In order to fulfill this company mission, westjet pursue to become one of the five most successful international airlines in the world by 2016, providing the guests with a friendly and caring experience that will change air travel forever.
The original version of the game has a map of the United States and southern Canada with 30 destination tickets. An expansion to the original game features larger sized card sets as well as 39 additional destination tickets for what is referred to as the “Mega Game” variant. Throughout this analysis, I will assume all features of the “Mega Game” will be used unless otherwise stated. Since the first release, maps of Europe, Switzerland, Germany, Scandinavia, Asia, India, Africa, and the Netherlands have been added as well as a card game, a dice expansion, and additional destination ticket expansions have been created with the same basic game play. The original map is shown in Figure 1.The set up for the game begins with each player selecting his/her set of color train tokens. Next each player is dealt four of the colored train cards that players can later use to build or purchase train routes...
Despite the growth in the market, Qantas International’s market share has been falling over the past 10years, from 34% in FY02 to 16% in FY13. The entry of Virgin Australia in 2000 in part explains this, however Virgin’s growth also coincided with the demise of Ansett in 2001 “… Virgin Blue will initially increase capacity on existing routes while evaluating what c...
Kellett, John R. The Impact of Railways on Victorian Cities. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London. 1969.
When analyzing Delta, you do not have to search very far before quite possibly one its strongest attribute rears its head. Based on calendar 2000 data, Delta is the largest U.S. airline in terms of aircraft departures and passengers enplaned, and third largest as measured by operating revenues and revenue passenger miles flown. Delta is the leading U.S. airline in the transatlantic, offering the most daily flight departures, serving the largest number of nonstop markets and carrying more passengers than any other U.S. airline. Delta Air Lines transports more passengers worldwide than any other airline. Through a vast worldwide route system Delta has flown over 117 million passengers, more than any other airline in the world. Delta mainline, domestic and international service, Delta Express, Delta Shuttle, Delta Connection®, Delta Sky Team and Worldwide Partners operate 6,400 flights each day to over 450 cities in 98 countries.
...ry long and successful history in the airlines industry, which makes it one of the leading airlines in the world. Also, it provides the most comfortable flights and services to its costumers and employees, which makes it unique.
1. Tesco is about a strong UK core business. Last year the industry saw some very marginal growth as a whole, however Tesco continued to grow beyond the market by offering better value for money and through getting cheaper.
Carnival also operates 14 hotels in Alaska and Canada and runs Holland America Westours, which markets sightseeing tours. Carnival has a 29.5% stake in Airtours, one of the UK's largest tour operators, and is bidding for control of cruise line NCL. CEO Micky Arison and family control Carnival.
Mintel. (2012). 91.4% of trains on time in January 2012. Available: http://academic.mintel.com.atlas.worc.ac.uk/sinatra/oxygen_academic/display/id=611570?highlight#hit1. Last accessed 2nd January 2014.
The first northbound tunnel carries passengers and cargo from Britain to France while the second southbound tunnel ferries passengers and freight from France to Britain. The emergency and service tunnel is located between the two main tunnels. It allows for maintenance and service operations to continue without disrupting normal operations on the main rail tunnels (Anguera 2006). Eurotunnel provides transport and vehicle services in the tunnels while Eurostar provides high-speed railway transport systems. All trains in the channel are electrically powered to avoid cases of smoke buildup underground. However, there are a few diesel-powered locomotives to perform maintenance operations or provide emergency transport services when electric power fails (Unmuseum.org, 2015). The Channel Tunnel was officially opened in May of 1994 at a ceremony presided over by both Queen Elizabeth the Second and France's President Mitterand (Smith, 2014). The Channel sees transport services of approximately 500 transport vehicles in a day. The American Society of Civil Engineers labeled the project as one of the wonders of the modern world (Chang & Ive,
“To be the best airlines in whole world and providing excellent customer experience in our flights with full entertainment and loads of satisfaction.”
Unlike in the United States, train travel is a German way of life. You can get on at train at any bahnhof (train station) and travel to any destination in Europe you would like. The Germans use the train as their main mean of travel due to pollution and the inflated gas prices. Americans tend to use the automobile as our main mean of travel more than we should.
Each party plays his parts – Role of key players like owners, Board of directors and staffs
Who doesn’t love a train ride? It offers a unique experience that no other vehicle can match. In a previous issue, we covered the Trans-Siberian Railway. In this article, we will be going on a journey aboard the Bernina Express, beginning our journey from Chur in Switzerland, traveling through wild Canton of Graubünden to Mediterranean Tirano in Italy.