Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve punctuality and service quality on the East Coast Mainline.

The Department has invested £1.2 billion in route-wide upgrades across the East Coast Main Line (ECML) as part of the ECML Enhancements Programme. These investments will deliver significant improvements in journey times, reliability, and capacity, which will be realised through the introduction of the major timetable change in December 2025.

In addition, a further £105 million has been allocated to a package of enhancements at Darlington Station. Once completed by the end of the year, these works will support improved performance and reliability for passenger services across the northern section of the route.

The December 2025 major East Coast Upgrade Timetable will deliver a range of benefits, including:

• Faster Anglo-Scottish journeys operated by LNER and Lumo

• An additional hourly LNER service between London and Newcastle

• Over 60,000 extra seats per week between London and Newcastle

• Improved connectivity across East Coast Main Line stations

• Increased local services north of Newcastle

• Additional services between Newcastle and Reading, enhancing both capacity and connectivity

• New trains operating between Sheffield and Leeds

• Faster commuter services on the Cambridge line, supporting a full service at the new Cambridge South station

• Provision for new services linking Middlesbrough, Sunderland, and Newcastle, as well as Nottingham and Lincoln

To ensure successful implementation, an industry readiness taskforce is in place to support the delivery of the new timetable from day one with a focus on maintaining high performance standards across the route.