Virgin Trains: Artistic flair at Stoke station

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Wednesday, 27, Feb 2008 12:00

Virgin Trains has teamed up with students from Staffordshire University's Art, Media and Design department to provide an artistic welcome to customers using Stoke-on-Trent station.

During the last five months students from the BA(Hons) Photography course at Staffordshire University were invited by Virgin Trains to come up with a series of images that would enhance the environment of the newly refurbished Stoke-on-Trent Railway Station. An exhibition, appropriately entitled 'The Waiting Room', and documenting the everyday life and work of the station, is now on display in the Waiting Room on Platform 1 at the City's station.

Additionally, examples of jewellery and ceramics, created by the students and reflecting the rich craft traditions for which Stoke-on-Trent is rightly famous, are also on display in the First Class Lounge.

Virgin Trains Station Manager, Karen Grimshaw said: "It has been a pleasure working with the students from Staffordshire University. The results of many hours of work are now available for everyone to enjoy as they pass through the station. Virgin Trains is pleased to support the students as part of their BA(Hons) Photography and Crafts courses."

The correlation between the act of photographing and waiting is often fundamental in the process of 'seeing the picture' as the students involved have realised throughout the project.

Kyle Gibson's sequence of photographs demonstrates how the familiar surroundings of advertisements, station structures and colour once isolated from their accepted contexts, make for visual play. In contrast to such play, Harriet Denson's work relates more to a documentary quality of photography; this is what the station and the platform look like.

The photographs of Dave Mullany, uses the notion of 'record photography' which underpins his analytical approach. Amy Chapman utilises the mechanics and optics of the camera to make the solidity of a material train, transparent.

Lastly there are always parts of a building that remain beyond public gaze, hence Lora Gibson's black and white photographs that reveal, in eerily stark tonal contrast, hidden structures beneath the station.

For further media information contact the Virgin Trains Press Office on 0845 000 3333, or visit our media website at www.virgintrainsmediaroom.com.

Notes to Editors

Images of Virgin Trains and the company's operations are available on our online media website www.virgintrainsmediaroom.com. You will need to register to access the Media Resources section containing high-resolution images of our operations.

Virgin Trains is the brand name of Virgin Rail Group. We have operated the West Coast passenger train franchise since 1997; the current franchise runs to March 2012.

Virgin Rail Group is owned 51 percent by Virgin Group and 49 percent by Stagecoach

Virgin Trains has recently been listed as the Best Train Operator in a survey by the Institute of Customer Service; came joint top of the long-distance train operators for passenger satisfaction in the National Passenger Survey and has been voted Best Rail Company by Travel Weekly magazine