TRANSPORT - TRAINS - VIRGIN

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A train journey that should have taken 90 minutes turned into a nine-hour ordeal made worse as food and water ran out on board. Before the 6.05pm Virgin Cross Country left Edinburgh for Birmingham via Newcastle conductors found that the doors on one carriage could not be opened and passengers had to be moved to another car. Then, minutes after the train pulled out of the station, it broke down and was stuck for five hours while engineers attempted to carry out repairs. Disgruntled passengers were picked up by buses at 11.30pm and taken to Newcastle central station.

But they arrived at 2.45am as the city's nightclubs were emptying and, as a result, Virgin had serious problems attempting to order taxis. Dr Gill Ferrell, from Blaydon, Gateshead, said, "The conditions were appalling. It was very hot, all of the toilets were out of order and there was no water available in the buffet car. People began to smoke in the rear two carriages forcing others to crowd to the front as staff made no attempt to stop them. There was a diabetic woman who needed an insulin injection and an asthmatic lady who was suffering because of the smoke." Virgin apologised for the "extremely rare" fault and said it would consider compensation "sympathetically".

The Rail Passengers Council called for a public inquiry into a £100 million taxpayers' compensation pay-out to Virgin Trains. The payment, brokered by the Strategic Rail Authority, was designed to stave off court action threatened by Virgin. It followed delays to Railtrack's £7 billion upgrade of the London to Scotland West Coast Main Line. RPC chairman Stewart Francis said, "The whole West Coast upgrade situation is deeply worrying, and this announcement will have shaken passengers and has raised more questions than answers. I am writing to the Transport Secretary demanding that a public inquiry is held into the whole issue."

Mr Francis said if the Government did not accede to the request for a public inquiry, the RPC - under the Transport Act 2000 - could hold its own inquiry and call relevant witnesses, although they would not be bound to attend. The RPC also accused Virgin Trains of "hiking prices and fiddling with ticket restrictions". Mr Francis said he was deeply unhappy with the recent fares consultation document from the SRA. And he said one particular Virgin fare - from Manchester to London - had increased by 75% since April 1998.

The new Virgin Pendolino high-speed tilting trains should cut journey times between London and Glasgow by about half an hour but two of them broke down. The flagship "Royal Scot" terminated at Carlisle after a wheel problem caused it to break down and the Holyhead to London train failed to start, causing passengers to travel by diesel to Crewe to pick up the London service.

The £7.6bn project, which has caused disruption to millions of passengers, is due for completion by 2008/2009. Passengers on the 9.49am service from Glasgow were transferred to another train in Carlisle after it limped into the station an hour late. It was travelling at 50mph instead of 110mph.

Virgin Trains said the problems were very disappointing but only two of 78 tilting services had experienced difficulties and the wheel problem was extremely unusual. The trains will only tilt and reach their top speed of 125mph south of Crewe because the line between there and Glasgow still needs upgrading.

A commuter who complained to Virgin Trains about its service was told to use a rival operator if he wanted to get home on time. The passenger, who lives in Bristol and works in Cheltenham, wrote in because his trip home was frequently delayed. Virgin's customer services desk said he should not have been on the train anyway, adding, "The 16.52 you catch from Cheltenham to Bristol Temple Meads is a long-distance service which starts from Glasgow Central and finishes at Penzance and is intended for long-distance travellers rather than commuters. Whilst we do not want to encourage you to travel on a different train, it may be best if you catch a local service, as these are not affected by the same factors that affect long-distance services."

A one-way ticket from Cheltenham to Bristol costs £7.80 on both Virgin and its local rival Wessex Trains. The Virgin service should take 44 minutes, while Wessex's commuter train takes an hour. A Wessex spokesman said, "According to the Strategic Rail Authority we are the most punctual operator in the south west." A Virgin spokesman said long-distance services were by their nature prone to delay but added, "I think the response could have been worded better."

A 19-year-old woman had a job offer withdrawn because she was too heavy to carry out her role safely. Emma Hall was offered a job with Virgin Trains as a customer service assistant, working in the train's kitchen or serving refreshments from a trolley. She later had the offer taken away after a medical examination showed she was above the weight limit for the job. Emma, who at 5ft 7in weighs 17st 8lb, was turned down because her body mass index (BMI) was, at 39, more than the company's required standard of 33. The company also told her that she should not have weighed more than 15st 3lb. BMI is measured by dividing a person's weight in kilograms by their height in metres squared.

Denize Quest, spokeswoman for Virgin Trains, said the job offer had only been made on condition that Emma passed a stringent medical test. She said, "All those applying for jobs are told they will have to comply with a stringent medical examination. We cannot compromise the safety of our passengers and since recent tragic accidents our safety requirements have become even more stringent. All staff involved with evacuation procedures are considered to be in safety critical roles. In an evacuation situation we cannot have our own staff hampering the situation - our staff have to move quickly and be mobile enough to help assist passengers."