Avanti West Coast is the name of the new intercity operation from FirstGroup and Trenitalia who take over the franchise from Virgin Trains on December 8.

First Trenitalia has won the franchise for the West Coast rail mainline between London and key cities such as Birmingham and Manchester, which has been operated by Virgin Trains since 1997.

China Southern has this week launched flights between London Heathrow and Zhengzhou in eastern China.

Virgin Trains has applied to the rail regulator to launch hourly services between London and Liverpool from May 2021.

Virgin Trains has finished upgrading hardware on its fleet of 56 pendolino trains to offer customers free wifi and better access to its BEAM entertainment hub via new on-board portal vthub.uk.

Travel management company Clarity has acquired Ian Allan Travel, giving the combined company a turnover in the region of £500million.

Virgin Trains has called for airline-style ticketing and compulsory reserved seating on long-distance rail services in its submission to the Williams Rail Review, launched by the government last September.

The Virgin Trains name could vanish from the UK rail network by November, according to company chief Richard Branson, after Virgin's rail partner Stagecoach was excluded from bidding to renew its West Coast mainline contract.

Passenger satisfaction with rail services has fallen to a ten-year low in findings from the latest National Rail Passenger Survey.