I DON’T think I’ve had the unique experience of travelling on a Virgin train to London Euston and it being on time. It might happen every now and then, but I’ve not had that pleasure. Leaving Warrington Bank Quay at 7.18am one morning last week, the train stopped mid-journey. Some time later, an announcer told us it was due to a fire at Leighton Buzzard – something to do with overhead cables. We were in a queue – a traffic jam of trains! I had left plenty of time to get to my meeting, with the train due to arrive at Euston at 9.09am. When the train eventually arrived at 9.50am, it looked unlikely that I would make my 10.30am meeting. On the return journey, it was chaos at Euston. Although the 3.30 train to Glasgow Central (calling at Bank Quay) was posted on the electronic board there was no platform information. I asked one of the Virgin staff if he knew whether the 3.30pm was late but he said he didn’t have any information. When I shared my frustrations, he shrugged and said: “What do you expect from Virgin?” Eventually we boarded and the train left about 20 minutes late. An announcer on the train apologised for the lateness then said his computer system was down and so there was no air conditioning – on one of the hottest days of the year. Also they were very short of staff in first class (I was in second) so apologised for the delay serving people, but there was only one person working. Could Virgin run a poorer service if it tried? ANDREA RICHARDS Grappenhall