FLAGSHIP cross-Border operator Virgin Trains has vowed to make rail travel between Scotland and London more popular than planes within the decade.

The operator has set a target to capture 50 per cent of the market share on the Edinburgh-London route by 2023, compared to around a third currently.

Virgin holds both the West Coast franchise and operates the East Coast franchise as part of a consortium with Stagecoach, although the trains are branded with the Virgin livery.

The company said it would learn from its experience with the West Coast service, which tripled passenger numbers on the Glasgow-London route in the six years to 2015.

A major plank in the drive to increase passenger numbers on the East Coast will be the introduction of a half-hourly service between Edinburgh and London from May 2016, along with the roll out of Virgin's faster Azuma train which will cuts journey times from four hours 23 minutes to four hours by 2020.

Air has had a greater share of the Scotland-London market since the 1980s, and the arrival of budget airlines such as Easyjet and Ryanair in the 1990s widened the gap as plane travel became cheaper.

However, David Horne, Virgin Trains’ managing director on the East Coast route, said they were determined to reverse the trend.

He said: “We’ve seen really positive growth in train travel on routes where airlines traditionally used to dominate. But no-one has yet gone after the biggest domestic air market of them all in the way we’re doing. That’s one of the biggest and most exciting challenges of this east coast franchise.

"At the moment around a third of people choose train over plane when travelling between Edinburgh and London.

"We’re confident we can up that to around half by the end of the franchise. Rail will no longer play second fiddle to air."

He added that he believed the four-hour journey would be a "tipping point" for passengers. 

He said: "Academic literature has for a long time talked about a three-hour tipping point at which you get a big shift from rail to air.

"But we think there’s a really big tipping point at four hours where rail becomes the default option for a much bigger proportion of customers.

"Our new Azuma trains, arriving in 2018, will make the 4hr journey the norm rather than the exception.

"There’s been a generational shift in favour of rail. Younger people, particularly those living in cities, are less likely to own a car and more likely to care about the environmental impact of their travel.

"They also set a premium on the quality of their journey, with the ease of boarding and the onboard experience being key factors in influencing their choice of travel mode. All this plays in favour of rail.”

It comes as Hearts owner, Ann Budge, prepares to open Virgin Trains' refurbished First Class Lounge at Edinburgh Waverley tomorrow [Mon].