Booked a train with Virgin? Now you can add an Uber to pick you up
Virgin Trains has announced a new partnership with Uber that will allow train riders to easily hail a cab once they arrive at their destination.
The partnership will result in Virgin customers receiving two text messages, which will include quick-links that let you instantly book a trip to your starting station, and from your destination station, reports Sky News.
You’ll receive the first when you’re due to head to the station, and the second will come through when you reach your destination. Uber is also offering discounts to coax people in.
Of course, Uber isn’t yet available in every town in the UK, and its licences to operate in London, York and Brighton are currently in various stages of review and appeal.
So for the time being the service will only be available between London and Birmingham for a two-week trial, but it is then set to expand to other lines that Virgin currently runs services along, including Edinburgh, Milton Keynes and Manchester.
Virgin Trains is claiming that the move is aimed at getting people to leave their cars at home, rather than driving to the train station.
A nice idea in need of facilities
Personally, we quite like the sound of the proposed functionality. Having to wait at a crowded taxi-rank when you reach a station is never fun, and being able to quickly request an Uber could save people a lot of time.
That said, we’ve never seen any UK train stations with ride-hailing facilities to accommodate large numbers of Ubers.
In the US, these kinds of facilities are now commonplace, giving passengers a convenient and safe location to wait for their cabs, but in the UK it’s all too common to see Ubers stopping awkwardly at the side of the road, since they’re not welcome in traditional taxi ranks.
Hopefully this latest bit of functionality will spur the creation of more ride-hailing specific drop-off locations to make the services safer and easier to use.
Will you be trying out the new functionality? Get in touch with us @TrustedReviews.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
