Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans his Department has to upgrade the East Coast Main Line between Edinburgh and Newcastle.

The current East Coast Main Line Enhancements Programme will already improve services between Edinburgh, Newcastle and south towards London, with more seats and regular faster trains in a new timetable expected to operate from May 2022. The Department is working closely with stakeholders to explore opportunities to further improve performance on the East Coast Main Line, and is currently awaiting the outputs of Network Rail’s analysis of capacity constraints on the route between Newcastle and Edinburgh.

In addition, the Union Connectivity Review, led by Sir Peter Hendy and expected to report in the summer, will make recommendations on how connectivity can be improved between Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England.