Virgin Trains has seen a 12% increase in traffic on its Manchester to London rail route during the last six months.

The train operator claimed it was winning market share from airlines for passengers travelling between the two cities.
 

Virgin said it now carried 77% of all passengers on the route including both rail and air journeys, according to figures from the Civil Aviation Authority, up from 75% a year ago.

Virgin Trains commercial director Graham Leech said: “We are quite literally driving airlines from the skies on short-haul domestic routes at the same time as our own services become faster and more frequent.”

He added that business travellers were being attracted on to rail services due to reliable mobile phone and Wi-Fi reception onboard Virgin’s Pendolino trains.

The operator may gain even more market share following VLM’s recent decision to cancel its London City-Manchester service.

• Branson 'binman faux pas': see video (7 May 2009)