McLoughlin: £2.7bn funding deal sealed for new inter-city trains

McLoughlin: "building a world-class rail system".

McLoughlin: "building a world-class rail system".

The transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin has hailed the sealing of the £2.7bn funding deal to build a new fleet of nearly 500 train carriages to improve reliability whilst expanding capacity.

The Class 800 trains will be manufactured at Hitachi Europe's County Durham factory start running on the East Coast Main Line in 2018 to provide 19% more seats than today, the DfT said. The new trains would also reduce journey times between London and Edinburgh by up to 15 minutes.

The deal is part of the DfT's InterCity Express programme to build a total of 866 carriages for use on the East Coast and Great Western mainlines. Funding has already been agreed for 369 new carriages for the Great Western mainline.