VIRGIN West Coast managing director Charles Belcher's almost scholarly demeanor fronts a career railwayman with a lifetime in the industry behind him.

After 25 years with British Rail, he spent time after privatisation as managing director of London's Silverlink and Wessex Trains in the south west before moving to Virgin.

And after almost three years in a job he says he always wanted, all has gone quiet on the route between Scotland and London, via Manchester and the north west - which means this 56-year-old father-of-three must be doing something right.

It is no longer open season on Virgin. The howls of derision which, only a few years ago, surrounded the company's high profile route as ageing trains struggled with infrastructure being dragged into the 21st century from the 1960s at a cost of é8bn are silenced.

Now, the é1bn fleet of 53 tilting Pendolino trains are over their teething troubles and winning old friends back from the airlines - with the help of some direct campaigns like the offer of a free first class ticket in retrurn for a used boarding pass. "We did have some fun with the airlines," says Belcher.

Slow and spasmodic

"It was quite right that we should lose passengers to the airlines. When you are providing a service which slow and spasmodic, you expect people to vote with their feet.

"What we are saying now is that we have had a good period of bedding in, our service is now really good - not perfect, but good - and I can't really see why you would want to go by air. We've got frequency, we've got speed, our fares are comparable and cheaper depending on when you want to travel, and we are greener.

"These companies have made a nice little niche when we have been in difficulties. There is nothing wrong with that and good luck to them. But we would like our passengers back now, please."

And, he says, journey times of close to two hours and its best reliability ever with more than 91.1 per cent of trains arriving on time at the beginning of the year, has given Virgin a 60 per cent share of the Manchester to London passenger share with airlines BA, VLM, and BMI taking 40 per cent - a reversal of the ratio when times were hard.

On the face of it, ruinous return fares of é311 first class and é202 second would seem a major handicap. But the reality is that only four per cent of first class passengers pay that full "walk-up" fare and only 15 per cent pay the top second class fare. Judicious off-peak advance booking can, in fact, get a first class return from Manchester to London for é56.

Last September, the company changed its system, scrapping seven and 14-day restrictions on buying its cheapest advance tickets and selling them until 6pm the day before travel. Around threequarters of Manchester to London passengers pay less than é25 for a single journey and advance booking by telephone and the internet is soaring.

Later this year, Virgin will follow airline examples and allow web bookers to print their own tickets rather than having to collect them or wait for the post.

Vanguard

Look at a map of the West Coast Main Line and Manchester appears to be a bit of a spur from the route which runs up from the south through Warrington, Wigan and Preston towards Scotland. But rest assured, we are firmly in the vanguard when it comes to future planning.

Of Virgin's 2750 staff, 350 are based at Piccadilly. Belcher says: "Manchester is the biggest market within Virgin West Coast and we see it growing. We are very keen to be seen not as a London-based inter city company but as a regional operator."

The number of railway passengers is increasing all over the country. Virgin West Coast saw patronage leap by 25 per cent in 2004/5, 15 per cent again in the last financial year and is amiing for another 10 per cent this year. To meet the demand, it is talking with its suppliers about building extra carriages to increase some Pendolinos to 12 coaches long - and even building new trains to add to the 53-strong fleet.
Business travellers still have their niggles - mobile phone reception is less than perfect because of the amount of metal incorporated for safety in the glass of carriage windows. But from next month, there will be modifications for 3G reception and wi-fi will follow a few months later.

First class travellers already get free food and drink, including a full English breakfast in the morning peak, but for those who bemoan the passing of the old Manchester Pullman trains, West Coast has brought back a three-course meal in on trains between 5pm and 7pm.

In preparation for Autumn, Pendolino wheels will be given their own coating of sandite - the substance spread on the tracks to stop skidding on leaves on the line - to give them their own protection against "leaves on the line".

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