Virgin Trains customers will now be able to enjoy free Wi-Fi and greater access to its entertainment hub BEAM on board thanks to an upgrade to its Pendolino fleet.

The final train in a fleet of 56 Pendolinos was fitted with new hardware earlier this month and is part of a range of improvements to improve customer experience on Virgin Trains across the UK network.

As part of the upgrade, the trains have had a complete refresh with engineers installing 77,183 metres (47.96 miles) of cable into the 574 coaches.

This development comes as a new on-board portal – vthub.uk – has also been developed by Virgin Trains for those travelling to get the most from of their journey.

Anyone using Wi-Fi on Virgin Trains will be directed to the portal’s landing page where they will able to access the updated free on-board train entertainment service BEAM, as well as access to journey planner and the food and beverage menu.

Chief Information Officer at Virgin Trains, John Sullivan, said: “We’ve been working hard to deliver the best on-board entertainment and Wi-Fi experience for our customers and I believe we’ve achieved that with this latest upgrade.

“Our enhanced Wi-Fi means customers can stay connected and up to date as they travel or dip into the latest boxsets and movies through our entertainment service BEAM. We know how important Wi-Fi is for all our customers and we want them to have an amazing experience while travelling on our network.”