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<p>Her Majesty’s Government has significant plans for the East Coast Main Line and
the InterCity East Coast franchise. The competition for the franchise is expected
to provide a number of material improvements for passengers, many of which are set
out in the Prospectus and Invitation to Tender (ITT) for the franchise. These include
the delivery of the new state-of-the-art Class 800/801 trains from the Intercity Express
Programme, which will both improve the environment for passengers and reduce journey
times.</p><p> </p><p>The Government’s Rail Investment Strategy for the period 2014-2019
includes £240million for improving the East Coast Mainline with the aim of providing
a material reduction in journey times between London and Edinburgh by 2020. The ITT
for the new franchise seeks to build on this by specifying that the maximum journey
time between London and Edinburgh reduces from 4hours 26 minutes in 2013, to 4 hours
17 minutes in 2020 to ensure that benefits from our investments in the IEP fleet and
infrastructure are delivered. It does not specify a reduction in journey times to
Newcastle but it is expected that these will also reduce to achieve the overall reductions
to Edinburgh. As the ITT sets out our minimum requirements for the franchise, we expect
that bidders will strive to improve upon these times.</p><p> </p>
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