The press release about Edan’s adventure with Virgin Trains was live for all but 12 hours before the franchise was handed over and the content taken down.
I screen-shotted it at the time and just wanted to preserve it for him (and them) here:
Virgin Trains have well and truly touched our lives. When we had our son we knew we wanted to raise him closer to family in Scotland and it meant moving from the South East of England. The Virgin service on the West Coast Main Line was instrumental in enabling us to make that move while I continued to work remotely out of an HQ in London.
An amazing gift from Virgin Trains
Little did we know that our son would become so utterly devoted to the trains that made that upbringing possible. Virgin Trains gave him an incredible gift: the gift of inspiration and on 30th Nov 2019 they added to that gift with something quite amazing. (see here).
I thought that as a way to remember Virgin Train’s contribution to the West Coast Main Line, and to my son, I would attempt a a rewrite of W H Auden’s famous poem “Night Mail”.
It’s a wonderful, rhythmic poem that captures the essence of the Royal Mail train rushing North through the night to Glasgow. Over and above that it has a poignancy for us because it is essentially “local”.
This is the Night Mail crossing the Border,
Bringing the cheque and the postal order,
Letters for the rich, letters for the poor,
The shop at the corner, the girl next door.
Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb:
The gradient's against her, but she's on time.And so it goes on…
Of course, those were the days of steam. In contrast, the staple express of the modern WCML has been the class 390 Virgin Pendolino.
I wanted the poem to be clearly “Virgin Pendolino” and to include a smattering of Pendolino names, since this is what’s really brought the trains alive for my son and indeed is at the heart of recent events.
So, without further ado:
This is Chad Varah crossing the Border,
Passengers happy, all is in order.
"Welcome to Virgin!" says a voice in the sky,
"Sit back, relax, this Scouseman can fly."
Travelling for business, travelling for fun,
Adventure with grandad, home to see Mum.
The shop’s in coach C for nibbles and snacks,
Mustn’t get hungry while riding the tracks.
Powering up Beattock, the motors are whirring,
Past windmills and forest, the countryside’s stirring.
“Rethink Mental Illness” or true “Virgin Glory”,
Each one of these locos can tell their own story.
Tunefully humming as she passes,
Silent miles of wind-bent grasses,
Birds turn their heads as she approaches,
Stare from bushes at her sleek streamlined coaches.
A farmhouse tilts by, where no one wakes,
But a jug in a bedroom gently shakes.
Dawn is behind us, in pours the sun,
She descends towards Glasgow at over a ton.
Scotland awaits her, there’s business to do,
A Treaty of Union from City of Crewe.
Edan always had a soft spot for Chad Varah (founder of the Samaritans)
People from England, those from afar,
People asleep in the quiet zone car,
Lego is scattered across the table,
Passengers visiting aunty Mable.
Travelling to weddings with invitations,
To meet the team or visit relations,
Interview prep for job applications,
Off to the wilds to explore new sensations,
Gossip and chatter from all the nations,
Twitter and Facebook and all the views,
The onboard Wi-fi delivering the news.
Travelling to uncles and cousins and aunts,
Heading to Scotland from somewhere in France.
Sadness for some with lost ones to bear,
Not sure what to say when the train gets there.
The chatty, the catty, the boring, the snoring,
The mobile phone guy and his heart’s outpouring,
Tapping of laptops and tablets and phones,
A palmful of pixels that everyone owns.
Let’s Bee Together this memorable day
Through mountains and cities, speeding our way.
“To Scotland!” We say, “that’s where we’re going!”
On Charles Rennie Mac with red silk a-flowing
It’s better by train, we’d rather not drive,
But what shall await us when we arrive?
The hustle and bustle, the city’s heart beating,
A handshake, a hug, a warm tender greeting.
This journey is over, heads held with Pride.
Passengers happy, thanks for the ride.
(c) Nik Sargent 2019
I’m going to have to admit something: it’s quite tricky typing with tears on the keyboard.
And the reason I have tears on the keyboard is I’m still trying to take in what Virgin Trains did for my son, Edan, at the weekend. I think in the world of any committed train enthusiast it counts as monumental.
Edan celebrates his love of Virgin Trains
For those who want the backstory you can read my open letter to Richard Branson here and an interim follow up here.
With just over a week left on the West Coast franchise, we knew that Virgin Trains were kindly organising a surprise for Edan, whose world revolves round trains and the West Coast Mainline.
It didn’t escape our attention that they needn’t have done anything. It would have been easy to do nothing, or send him a signed photo, or something quite low key.
But I suppose that is not the Virgin way. To say they knocked-it-out-of-the-park-and-then-some redefines the word understatement. They created a “once in a lifetime” experience for Edan that he will indeed remember for a lifetime. They literally handed over a part of their legacy that will keep their history alive and he will treasure it forever.
The day started with a complimentary trip to Blackpool. (Well actually, the day started getting stuck at the entrance to the car park and then discovering there were damaged overhead lines just outside Carlisle. But fate was on our side and it didn’t end up sending our plan off the rails).
We rode on a Pendolino (390141 formerly City of Chester) to Preston and then changed onto a Super Voyager, which gave Edan the chance to explore the whole train and create another “Train Files”.
The trip to Blackpool involved a one-hour turn around during which time Darran, the local Train Driver Manager, spent the whole time showing Edan the ropes on 101 Squadron - the Super Voyager we rode there and back on.
He showed Edan practically everything there was to know about the train and how it operates, including what was behind all the secret cupboards! And he left him with a very treasured and special memento to take away.
We honestly thought, WOW, after that train experience and the chance to give a station announcement back at Carlisle, it’ll have been an amazing experience etched on his memory.
Little did we know what else was planned.
The Pendolino we travelled back to Carlisle on was in reverse car order (which was a first for all of us and pretty cool for an enthusiast like Edan) so when we stepped off, Edan ran back along the platform to see the name plate (of course!)
Being met at Carlisle
As he did so, we were met by a team of Virgin staff and a photographer who had been waiting for us at the other/normal end of the platform. They took photos and waved off a few trains before taking us to platform 4 to be presented with a gift. Amazingly we managed to keep Edan in our sights for once, because his usual modus operandi at Carlisle is to run round the platforms trying to see every single train!
I think it was at this point we were given some branded cookies and other goodies and I was already just overwhelmed at the generosity and warmth of the staff. Then we were asked to wait with the photographer while the Virgin team went off to get something else. I’ll be honest, I was thinking maybe they’d got a cake, or a model train or something.
It was then I saw them coming back down the platform trying to disguise-something-that-was-pretty-un-disguisable and realised what was happening.
I froze inside, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
There was a nameplate being brought down the platform. Onlookers were bemused. Other rail enthusiasts stopped in their tracks; one asked “What’s Happening!???”
Stuart - the photographer - readied himself; Katie on the Virgin team approached Edan as asked if he knew what it was? He knew. She asked what name he thought it was and turned it round to reveal CLIC Sargent. I just filled up inside, I could barely swallow or stem the flow of tears. This is how you reduce a grown man and doting Dad to a crumbling wreck, in case you ever wanted to know. Thankfully my creaking knees held out.
I have to help you understand just how momentous this gift was.
Edan is presented with the CLIC Sargent nameplate
During age 1 - 2 we lived right next to the West Coast mainline. Since age 3 Edan has been devoted to these trains and we’ve been devoted to travelling the length and breadth of the country to help him see them.
They are so intertwined with his existence and knowledge, it’s no word of a lie to say that by age 4 I was fully confident that if he’d ever got lost at Edinburgh Waverely station (which has 19 platforms) he’d have been able to find a train home to Carlisle or Dumfries entirely unaided.
Week after week after week, he has raced to stand in front of the nameplates and pose for pictures. Month after month he has braved the weather on platforms to see them race by and shout out the name, much to the bewilderment and bemusement of other travellers.
He has been so close to all these nameplates, both physically and in his heart, but never once has he touched one. They are a permanent fixture in his childhood but, despite the lure, never once has he crossed that forbidden yellow line.
These are valuable pieces of rail memorabilia and we know that some of these plates will go to raising money for charity. By my amateur calculations, this nameplate has travelled millions of miles - easily to the moon and back several times. The privilege granted to us by Virgin Trains is certainly not lost on us.
And there’s something else that I think even Virgin don’t know: CLIC Sargent is a charity, of which the Sargent half was, of course, founded in memory of Sir Malcolm Sargent, the musician and orchestral conductor. Although we don’t have the full family tree, to the best of our knowledge he is indeed a distant relative.
We take some photos, Edan gets hugs from everyone and then head back to the office where he is allowed to make a platform announcement, toot the horn of a freight loco and is taught to dispatch it by Katie.
Of course, it’s not all over for Edan, he stays another hour on the freezing platform while all the hubbub dissipates and eventually it feels like we’re the only ones there! We’re quite used to that!
Finally, we leave; carrying a remarkable piece of history with us.
I don’t really know where to begin with saying thank you. Also, I can hardly begin to imagine what strings were pulled to make this possible!
What I do know is that a lot of people - most of them behind the scenes - must have gone way above-and-beyond to make this happen; and they are forever going to be in our memory. (Let’s face it, we’re going to have a fairly substantial permanent reminder on the wall!)
We have to give a special mention to Darran (Driver Manager) and John (Driver) at Blackpool for showing Edan the ropes on the Voyager. We’d like to thank Katie and the team at Carlisle who treated us like part of the family (not forgetting Paul who let Edan take control of the station mic).
And at the beginning of all this is someone anonymous in the social media customer services team (one of whom is only known to me as ^BT), who took the effort to reply and say “leave it with us and we’ll see what we can do”.
Clearly this also couldn’t have happened without being masterminded by Laura from Corporate Affairs who we were delighted to meet at Carlisle. Laura: I don’t know how you did it but it was extraordinary.
You are all very special people.
This is indeed the end of an era, but also the end of a chapter. A new chapter begins on 8th December 2019 and it’s comforting to know that the staff of Virgin Trains (at least all the ones I spoke to) are hopeful and positive about their next chapter. Ever since its creation, the railway has always touched and transformed millions of lives.
Once again I thank the special folk at Virgin in the deepest and most heartfelt way possible and at the same time wish them the best of luck on the next leg of their journey.
And let’s be honest, we’ll still be seeing you on the platform most weekends!
Thank you for making a difference. Thanks a googol !!
Nik x
Well, what just happened was that about 10 days ago I wrote (here) to thank Virgin Trains and Richard Branson for the impact they have had on my son, Edan (who is now 6 but has been a lifelong train enthusiast). I got a lovely reply from the brilliant customer service staff at Virgin:
Then I went away on business to London for a few days and had my head down in work and never checked twitter. Once I was on the train heading home (Virgin Pendolino 390037 as it happens - “Virgin Difference” - which is how I signed off my letter. Prophetic?) I decided to fire up tweetdeck and have a peek at twitter.
The first thing that had happened was Virgin Trains had asked me to get back in touch - but alongside that, hundreds of people had liked and shared the correspondence, and many others had replied to me with heartwarming messages.
My train ride was 3.5 hours and it took me the whole journey to get through all the tweets!
What transpired over the next few days was quite breathtaking to me. We received so many messages of encouragement and solidarity.
I saw for myself that the “Rail Family” - those who have grown up on the railway, or work on the railway, or otherwise have a passion for it - really is a “thing” and it’s a warm, kind, welcoming family to boot; and that really brought a lump to my throat.
There was an outpouring of generosity including the offer of various “experiences” for Edan. Amongst these was the “chance of a lifetime” to see name plates being made by the supreme experts in the field. Frankly we were just completely bowled over.
We also had a note from Paul who produces “trip reports” on YouTube.
Edan has watched so many hours of his YouTube channel! He’s been there (virtually) with Paul on the first run of the Hitachi 800 in the UK; the first run of Eurostar from London to Amsterdam and so on.
Paul’s reports also inspired Edan to create some of his own videos in a similar vein and you can see his own “Train Files” in the video here from his latest trip, where he talks us through First Class on the Virgin Pendolino.
Nothing can stop Edan’s passion for trains.
With under 2 weeks to go on the Virgin Franchise, last weekend he surprised me with a planned trip from our base in Scotland to Wigan to ride on a Voyager and Pendolino and do some more Virgin Trains spotting!
He’s never been to Wigan before but you can see from the video when he gets off the train it’s like releasing an animal back into the wild! 😂
When I wrote my original letter, it was just a heartfelt Thank You to Virgin about unseen consequences, yet it turned into something so much more!
IT’S Train Books OF SOME KIND most nights And Sleeping with VIRGIN train layouts next to his bed (Sorry, CAB)!!
I included the sunflower logo in my original letter and some readers will have understood why. We’re poignantly aware that there must be many “Edans” and young train lovers up and down the country, and he is lucky and privileged to have been on the receiving end of such kindness - which has been, and will be, a big learning experience for him.
As a measure of our gratitude to those that have extended their generosity to Edan, in turn we’ll be donating to Crisis, who do wonderful work looking after the homeless at Christmas (and all year).
And so, once again, our deepest, sincerest gratitude to everyone:
Thank you for inspiring,
Thank you for supporting,
Thank you for celebrating his world!
Chasing Child, Chasing Train
I've often considered myself an early adopter, but being of the nervous disposition I am in fact wary of things like e-tickets because no technology is perfect. Typically I like to have a paper backup of such things, just in case.
So, this also applied when I recently booked the whole family on return Virgin West Coast tickets from Scotland to London. I hesitantly ordered my tickets to be delivered to my mobile phone because I have been let down by the post before, and we have no self-service machine at our local station. (Sure, I can use the one at the main station on the day, which is 20 miles away, but I always feel it's a bit too late to find out something is wrong just before your train; I like to have these things in my hand in advance).
The thing is, Virgin seem to have changed their delivery of e-tickets and their app a few times lately. There was a time when you could download them into your iPhone wallet and display them on your lock-screen, which was ultra handy. And once they were on the phone, they were on the phone (or so it seemed anyway). I had very little issue with this system other than the risk of my phone conking out.
Now, however, tickets are accessed through the Virgin mobile app. The process seems similar: you "download" tickets, then on the day "activate" them. Well, our outward journey was fine, but it started to go wrong on the return journey.
We were sitting in Euston and about an hour before the journey I went into the app and made sure the tickets were "downloaded". All good. I then activated them, to make sure I had everything ready to present. Again, all good.
30 minutes before the journey I checked my phone again, checked the tickets were ok, and explained to my fellow-travellers that we'd have to show them at the platform entrance. All good.
About 20 minutes before the departure of the train we got the text notification to proceed to concourse. So, down we went.
I told you I was the nervous type, so I checked the tickets again. This time not good. I had been logged out of the app, and was presenting with a login screen. I tried to login with my regular details and it was rejected. Panic started to set in.
Now, I should also add that the week before when I booked the tickets, Virgin had taken it upon themselves to forcibly reject my existing password as not meeting their "new requirements" and so I had changed password. I started to wonder whether I was making a mistake or if it was them. Either way, whatever I tried, I was not getting in: I could not display my tickets.
I raced to the virgin ticket area to seek assistance - massive queues; one member of staff out front assisting and busy with two people ahead of me. Anyway, politely I waited while my blood pressure doubled, and eventually explained the predicament to him.
Now, I had taken what reasonable and available "backup" precautions I could, in the sense i had screen shots of my booking, the reference number etc. I asked would this be sufficient to at least get on the train and then try and sort the problem? He said no - the best he could offer was go over to the corner where there's a phone to virgin central command and see if they can do something like change your train!
By now I was proper panicking, and was trying to do a password reset.
THEN, suddenly, I just had a light-bulb moment. Was this the internet? I realised my phone was showing a public WiFi connection but I'd not been asked to log in. I killed the WiFi, dropped back to 4G, and fired up the app again. I re-entered my login details and -boom- lo and behold I was back in my account.
However, my tickets were not in the app, despite previously having been "downloaded"! I "downloaded" them again, which thankfully worked, and was then able to activate them, before dragging my family at breakneck speed to the platform. We were back up and running.
This was a terrible experience on many counts: poor process design, poor user experience [failing a login attempt because of no internet connection but reporting just a login failure; loss of already "downloaded" tickets for example], poor customer service. It may have expanded my child’s vocabulary somewhat, but it didn’t do my cardiac system any good.
I had a quick look at the Virgin FAQ on e-tickets, and it says this:
Q: What happens if I run out of battery?
A: Ensure your mobile is charged, if you are unable to display your mobile ticket, you'll need to buy a new ticket at the full fare.
In other words: "no-show, no go.."
Obviously anyone reading that FAQ ought to realise that it would include any reason for failure to display the ticket; but what it doesn’t say is that mobile app appears to rely on an internet connection to display tickets. Had I known this at the outset this whole saga could have been avoided. Although, it does then beg the question, if the tickets are "downloaded" and "activated" why is an internet connection required at all after that point?
I suspect the answer is the tickets actually only live on the virgin server, and unless you can display that, you are stuffed.
Suffice to say, I won't be using this system any time soon again in future unless I really have no option or Virgin introduce some kind of mitigation for device or connectivity failure. And if I do end up having to use the app again in future, at least I will take screenshots of all the tickets and bar-codes from inside the app in advance.
You have been warned.
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