Word: branson
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...grown man, for that matter. Virgin group director Will Whitehorn sprang up to one of the coaches and pressed his face to the shiny aluminum skin. He later told Branson: "You're going to wet yourself when you see it." If Britain's dodgy railroad tracks were only up to the task, the train could hit 225 km/h. Even as it is, it should cut the trip between London and Manchester to two hours, down from two hours and 40 minutes, when it joins the fleet in 2002, Whitehorn says. But the train has one other, perhaps more urgent, mission...
...past year has been rocky for Branson, 50, who still holds the undisputed title of Britain's most absolutely fabulous tycoon. "The entrepreneur in a sweater," as the Guardian newspaper recently dubbed him, owns stakes in hundreds of businesses-from the banal, like Virgin Cosmetics, to the notional, like the spacebound Virgin Galactic Airways-so it's never easy to say if he's up or down. Last March, Branson sold 49% of his Virgin Atlantic airline to Singapore Airlines for a nice $900 million. But his Virgin Trains-about 17% of Virgin revenue-are still notoriously late and slow...
...Unless you are Branson. "Having just done massive research on the brand, [Virgin Trains] doesn't seem to have done the sort of damage to the brand you might have thought," says Branson, sitting on a sofa in a surprisingly modest office tucked away in London's Notting Hill Gate neighborhood. Branson, others have noted, can seem shy for a guy equally smiley alongside bare-chested models and Tony Blair. But "shy" doesn't quite capture it; imagine Bill Gates in court, except handsome and well turned-out. Branson crosses his arms as if to hug himself and talks...
...lines, according to the Strategic Rail Authority. Virgin group commercial director Richard Bowker observes that in the months before last October's Hatfield rail disaster-which killed four passengers on a non-Virgin train, and led to national speed restrictions-the company's performance was gaining on the competition. Branson believes that as long as consumers can see the investments Virgin is making to improve services down the line, they'll forgive...
...little old-fashioned ballyhoo might help as well. Last month, in response to the steep decline in ridership after Hatfield, Branson announced "The World's Biggest Rail Offer," slicing ticket prices in half. Trouble is, all that demand led to a customer service "meltdown"-Branson's word-and Britain's newspapers were quick to report "chaos" in the rail system. "When Harrods has a sale on and there's a line outside, you don't hear anyone whingeing," says Bowker...