Social interventions
Affordability is vital in order to persuade people to use public transport over cars and to ensure equality of mobility. Virgin Trains has led the industry in offering value-for-money tickets and its advance tickets are the fastest growing part of the business. It now sells over 400,000 heavily discounted tickets each month.
Virgin Trains recognises that its responsibilities extend to its supply chain and for this reason it was the first train operator to move all its hot drinks and sugar to Fairtrade suppliers. It is now introducing organic, responsibly- farmed local produce. It has also written into its contract with Rail Gourmet (its food supplier) that it too is obliged to reduce its energy use and packaging waste, move towards recyclable onboard packaging and provide healthy, seasonal products that are environmentally and economically sustainable.
Virgin Trains’ staff, customers and suppliers helped raise funds for the Heaven’s Angels campaign, to put 60 health workers on motorbikes, who reach over 19,000 people in rural Kenya every month (read more about the Heaven’s Angels in the Unite section on page 75).
8. CLIC Sargent (www.clicsargent.org.uk)
Virgin Trains expects soon to achieve its target of raising more than £200,000 for children and their families affected by cancer, through its charity partnership with CLIC Sargent8
.
Transport with a difference
Public transport is not always appropriate and for those occasions there needs to be a variety of low carbon options. Virgin Limobikes, is a taxi company using motorbikes in London that offers a low carbon, speedier and fun alternative to conventional taxis in the busy city . While not being as low carbon as public transport, the bikes use less fuel than cars, do not contribute to congestion, have no air-conditioning or heating and spend far less time idling in traffic and therefore have a lower impact on air pollution. Annual rider training ensures efficient use of fuel.
Virgin Limobikes has seven bikes at the moment, which between them do around 65 trips per day, serving customers who often don’t have enough time to travel by public transport.
The Virgin VR01 is the first F1 car to be entirely designed using computer simulation tools thus negating the need for inefficient wind tunnels.
36
A Virgin Limobike
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