Virgin Rail Group

Virgin Rail Group was formed by the Virgin Group to bid for rail franchises in the United Kingdom during the privatisation of British Rail. Virgin bid for a number of franchises, including Gatwick Express, InterCity CrossCountry and InterCity West Coast. It was successful in winning the latter two, and Virgin CrossCountry and Virgin West Coast began operations in January and March 1997 respectively. Both franchises were scheduled to run for 15 years.

In 1998 Virgin Rail, as part of the Capital Rail consortium, was shortlisted for an Australian high-speed rail service from Sydney to Canberra.

In October 1998 Virgin Group sold 49% of the shares in Virgin Rail Group to Stagecoach. In March 2000 Virgin was shortlisted to bid for the InterCity East Coast franchise. In January 2002 the Strategic Rail Authority scrapped the refranchising process and awarded a two-year extension to GNER.

In the wake of the collapse of Railtrack and the inability of Network Rail to deliver on the 140 mph (225 km/h) West Coast Main Line upgrade, both the Virgin CrossCountry and Virgin West Coast franchises were suspended in favour of management contracts in July 2002. While the terms of the West Coast franchise were renegotiated, agreement could not be reached on CrossCountry and it was retendered in 2007.

Virgin was shortlisted to bid for the InterCity East Coast franchise in 2004, but was not successful, as the franchise bid was won by Sea Containers, parent company of then train operator Great North Eastern Railway. Virgin was shortlisted for the New CrossCountry franchise by the Department for Transport in September 2006, but was not successful with the Virgin CrossCountry franchise transferring to Arriva in November 2007.

After Sea Containers was stripped of the East Coast franchise due to poor financial management, Virgin was again shortlisted for the InterCity East Coast franchise in February 2007, but was not successful, as the franchise bid was won by National Express. This bid had a 10% shareholding for the incumbent, Sea Containers.

Virgin was awarded a contract by the Department for Transport in July 2008 to manage the introduction of 106 extra Class 390 Pendolino carriages.

Virgin was shortlisted for the InterCity West Coast franchise by the Department for Transport in March 2011.

In August 2012 the Department for Transport awarded FirstGroup the new franchise. Virgin felt that the methodology used to award the franchise was flawed, and Richard Branson said it was unlikely Virgin would bid for any future franchises. When the Department for Transport did not respond to Virgin's concerns, it launched proceedings for a judicial review. While preparing its case for the judicial review, the government discovered significant technical flaws in the way the franchise process had been conducted, and cancelled the competition, vindicating Virgin's protests. In December 2012 Virgin was awarded a 23-month management contract to run the franchise until November 2014.

in May 2013 a controversy regarding new uniforms claims that the new blouses were too revealing and potentially exposed dark bras to the public. Virgin Rail Group responded to this by offering a voucher worth £20 to allow employees to purchase a top to wear underneath the new blouses.

In March 2015, Virgin Trains East Coast commenced operating the InterCity East Coast franchise. However instead of being run by Virgin Rail Group, this is run by Inter City Railways which is majority owned by Stagecoach, with Virgin Group only holding a 10% shareholding.