Altro helps to maintain the wow factor
Altro Transflor Met
As an operator providing around 976 services a week to some 20.6 million passengers a year, a quality customer experience is absolutely paramount for Virgin Trains East Coast. So when they decided to embark upon a substantial £21 million upgrade of their existing fleet of 44 trains, Virgin Trains had a clear idea of the right companies to partner with on the project.
With routes covering distances of up to 580 miles between London and Inverness, Virgin Trains' rolling stock needs to offer outstanding comfort, safety and visual appeal without compromise.
“As part of a high profile refresh project Virgin Trains has invested £21 million to ensure that its trains continue to offer passengers what it likes to call the ‘wow factor’,” explains product planning coordinator, Paul Charles, continuing:
“Naturally the visual appeal and overall suitability of the flooring solution was very important, but it also had to be a product that fitted well with the Virgin ethos. The company has very high standards in terms of who it works with and likes to try and work with UK-based suppliers to support industry, so Altro really ticked those boxes.”
Another key factor to Altro’s selection for the project was the proven performance and durability of Altro’s flooring solutions. Altro’s Transflor Met has been used prominently in high foot traffic areas of the Virgin Trains vehicles, including public conveniences and buffet cars.
“When we approach a project like this, the specified product has to be functional, it has to last, and it has to look as good after three or four years of use as it did when it was originally laid. One of the main reasons that we chose to work with Altro is because that is exactly the type of product that they deliver.
“I think flooring is something that everybody just takes for granted; people just expect it to work. You rarely get feedback on the flooring unless it’s not performing as it should. But we’ve never had any complaints with Altro flooring because it does exactly what it is supposed to do,” says Paul, before concluding:
“We’ve got experience of the product, we know what we’re getting and we know that it works. So when we embarked on this project, Altro’s Transflor Met was a logical choice.”
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