LIVERPOOL’S direct rail service to London has become the most punctual express route in the country, operator Virgin revealed yesterday.

The company said the multi-billion upgrade to the West Coast main line had made the rail link more popular than ever – adding that it felt its reliable services were to blame for air operator VLM suspending its daily flights to London from Liverpool.

According to latest rail statistics, 92% of trains ran on time, or arrived early, between Liverpool Lime Street and London Euston.

The company’s bosses also announced that passenger figures on the route had risen by two thirds since 2004, and confirmed that, from 2009, half-hourly trains will run during peak times between Liverpool and the capital.

Virgin Trains revealed the growth figures during a conference on future rail links for England's North West region organised by the North West Business Leadership Team and held in Warrington.

During the conference, Virgin Trains managing director Chris Gibb said: "The growth figures since 2004 are only the start. We have an impressive package of further train service improvements for the North West region, which will start in 2009.

“The completion of the majority of track upgrade work will allow us to increase West Coast train services by 32%, providing an additional 13 million seats a year. A large proportion of this extra capacity will be provided through England's North West region.

“The improvements we have made to train services in the North West region have already seen the airline operator on the Liverpool-London route take flight and suspend its services.

“On the Manchester-London route, passengers continue to vote with their feet and rail's share of the Manchester-London rail/air market is now more than 63% and growing.”

Planned service improvements from 2009 include:

A new hourly service to/from London and Chester, with some trains also serving North Wales stations to/from Holyhead or Bangor.

Faster journey times on services calling at Warrington en-route to Glasgow and London.

Three additional peak time trains to London each morning from Liverpool and Runcorn, returning in the evening to give a half-hourly business service.

The company has also announced that more trains will now be operating on Sundays.

BUSINESS: PAGE 18

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