Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the infrastructure of the East Coast Main Line has sufficient capacity to enable the Virgin/Stagecoach consortium to deliver both faster and more frequent trains under the InterCity East Coast franchise.

The enhanced infrastructure, provided by Government’s Rail Investment Strategy for Control Period 5 (2014-2019) and as part of the Intercity Express Programme (IEP), and new trains, provided by IEP, will allow Virgin Trains East Coast to deliver improvements to the East Coast train service. In addition to this any decision on the allocation of further capacity made available by these enhancements will be taken by the Office of Rail Regulation.