Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to Levelling Up in the United Kingdom White Paper, what steps his Department is taking to improve rail connectivity for passengers travelling between the North of England and London.

LNER services on the East Coast Main line (ECML) connect London, Yorkshire, the North East and Scotland. These services help to support levelling-up and provide a key avenue of Union connectivity.

As a result, the Department is investing £1.2 billion in a programme of infrastructure enhancements for the ECML. These upgrades are vital to improve the service on the railway for tens of thousands of passengers who travel on the route. Alongside the brand-new Azuma trains, this will help to deliver journey time, reliability and capacity improvements. These upgrades have already enabled direct LNER services from London King’s Cross to Middlesbrough to commence in December 2021.

The review of the future timetable is considering the implementation of additional services to Bradford, Middlesbrough, Cleethorpes and Huddersfield, as well as aiming to deliver more services and faster journey times to Leeds and Edinburgh, improving connectivity between London, Yorkshire, the North East and Scotland.

Additionally, following publication of the Integrated Rail Plan in November 2021, the Department will ask Network Rail to take forward interventions on the East Coast Main Line to deliver improved journeys to Leeds and the North East. This will consider upgrades to allow higher speeds, including up to 140mph on some sections, longer trains and measures to tackle bottlenecks that limit speed and capacity.