Rail revamp to help region beat the recession

Paul Jeeves

THE biggest overhaul of train services in nearly two decades on the premier rail route through Yorkshire has been heralded as key to helping the region claw its way out of the recession.

The massive revamp along the East Coast main line between London and Edinburgh aims to encourage more passengers to opt for rail travel as well as ensuring new enterprise locates in Yorkshire.

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The improvements will see journey times to London cut from both York and Leeds, with an average of five additional trains from the North Yorkshire city to the capital on a weekday.

The revamp will also mean that journey times from Leeds to London will be the same as those from Manchester to the capital, allowing the region to compete effectively with the North-West to attract business.

An early morning commuter service from Leeds to London is expected to take under two hours. The East Coast main line is now effectively under state control, but it will pass back into private hands in the autumn of 2011. A public sector company, East Coast, took over from the troubled franchisee National Express in November last year.

East Coast external communications manager Neal Smith said: “The East Coast main line is the country’s premier rail route and we recognise how it important it is to the economic and social well-being of Yorkshire. We are determined to promote rail travel by offering the best journey experience, attracting people off our congested roads and out of the skies.

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“As a York-based company we will play our part in helping to deliver more, better and faster services for the county.”

The rail industry is planning for a 40 per cent growth in passengers in the next decade, as people look to a greener form of transport as well as avoiding congested roads.

The line saw 18 million journeys in 2009, meaning there could be an additional seven million trips annually within 10 years. The new timetable – dubbed Eureka! – has been in development for more than a decade and will offer 25 extra weekday services and more than 9,000 additional weekday seats.

Details of the new timetable, due to be launched in May next year, are going out to public consultation from today.

A website featuring the proposed timetable as well as a questionnaire is available at www.eastcoast.co.uk/eureka

Comment: Page 10.