As I predicted..

Patrick Crozier credits me (or rather Hugh Dady, who I quoted) with prescience over the problems with Operation Princess. The reality is that the way things were going seriously pear-shaped was blindingly obvious to anyone that actually uses the service.

I think Virgin Train's problem stems from the fact that they have two quite different markets, and the trains and timetable only really caters for one of those.

The first market is the short-haul market on runs like Birmingham-Manchester; this market is made up of day-trippers and commuters, who want a high-frequency 'turn-up-and-go' service.

The second market is the long-haul one, on the routes to Scotland and the West of England, made up mostly of people whose journeys involve overnight stays and therefore carry a lot of luggage. These people tend to book their journeys in advance, and service frequency is less of an issue than the existance of a direct train at the right time of day between a given pair of stations.

The trains (basically sprinters with pointy noses) just aren't designed for the long-distance market; the lack of luggage space and inadequate catering are example of this. As for the serious overcrowding problems, this is a consequence of attempting an all-day regular-interval service with short trains when the demand varies considerably by time of day. While Virgin claim there are as many seats available over the course of the day, I'm sure there are far fewer at busy times.

I now have proof that Virgin Trains do irony - The Voyager "shops" do indeed sell the Manic Street Preachers' album "Forever Delayed".