seeing that news about FirstGroup order for AT300s for their open access operation reminded me of the below from a recent Transport Select Committee report (
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmpubacc/1793/179305.htm#_idTextAnchor004)
Summer recess will start sometime in July so perhaps we will find out some more then
4.
It is unacceptable that passengers still do not know when the improvements to services that the Department promised them from the failed East Coast franchise will be delivered. The Department promised passengers an improved service when it let the East Coast franchise to Virgin Trains East Coast (VTEC) in 2014, including reduced journey times, new services, and a large increase in seat numbers. Also, new direct services with some northern towns and cities were promised from May 2020. After the franchise entered financial difficulties in 2017, the Department terminated the franchise in June 2018, bringing it back into the public sector. The Department now operates the franchise under the brand of London North Eastern Railway (LNER). The Department asserts that the commitments given by the VTEC franchise are the same as those in the Department’s Services Agreement with LNER, including the introduction of new direct services. However, infrastructure enhancements on the East Coast are necessary to enable these direct services to be introduced and the Department could only tell us that this work will be completed throughout the early 2020s. Infrastructure enhancements will therefore not be in time to support the introduction of the new direct services by May 2020 as promised, and we remain unclear when the new services will run. The Department also expects a new public-private east coast partnership will operate on the route from 2020 and it is not clear whether LNER will be operating the new direct services or the new east coast partnership.
Recommendation: By summer recess, the Department should write to the Committee setting out in detail when the new direct services to towns and cities such as Huddersfield, Sunderland and Middlesbrough, promised on the east coast railway when the VTEC franchise was awarded will begin, reflecting the latest plans for necessary infrastructure enhancements.