UK mass participation sports event organiser Nova International has a new partnership with Virgin Trains. The three year deal will see Virgin Trains become the Official Train Operator of eleven ‘Great Events’ within Nova’s portfolio through to 2016, including popular runs and open water swims in Scotland, the North West, the Midlands and London.
Richard McFaul, Sponsorship and Account Manager at Nova International said, “We’re delighted to announce this exciting new partnership. Over 120,000 people are expected to take part in the events covered by the Virgin Trains network and we’re looking forward to working with them to provide even more runners, swimmers and supporters with fast, comfortable and reliable transport.”
Danny Gonzalez, Virgin Trains’ Head of Marketing, added “This is going to be a fantastic partnership – at Virgin Trains we’ll match the speed and effort competitors put in to their events with the speed and comfort of our tilting 125 mph trains. There are plenty of tips around for getting the best run or swim performance, but there’s just one for getting the best train deals: book early.”
The partnership will begin with the Bupa Great Winter Run in Edinburgh on 11 January 2014 and will include the BBC live televised Bupa Great Manchester Run with 40,000 runners in May and Britain’s biggest open water swimming event, the Great North Swim with 10,000 swimmers in the Lake District in June.
Virgin Trains is the brand name of Virgin Rail Group (VRG), which is owned 51% by Virgin Group and 49% by Stagecoach. The UK Department for Transport (DfT) has awarded VRG a franchise contract, which started on 9 December 2012 and will run for up to 23 months.
Nova International creates and develops some of the UK’s biggest televised mass participation sports events including the Great Swim, Europe’s largest open water swim series, and the Bupa Great North Run, the UK’s biggest running event with 56,000 participants.
www.novainspiringevents.org
www.virgintrains.co.uk
