Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to his Written Statement of 27 November 2014, Official Report, column 49-50WS on Rail Franchising, how many high speed trains there are on the East Coast Main Line; how many will be replaced by new Intercity Express Programme (IEP) trains; and how many will remain in service on the (a) East Coast, (b) national network and (c) regional network after the introduction of IEP trains.

The current fleet of 44 trains made up of 14 High Speed Trains (HSTs) and 30 Inter City 225s (IC225s) on the InterCity East Coast will be replaced by 65 new state-of-the-art trains provided by the Intercity Express Programme from 2018. These trains will be assembled at the Hitachi plant in Newton Aycliffe providing around 730 jobs. Inter City Railways Ltd also expects to provide 6 additional high speed intercity trains to supplement the fleet. Plans for cascading the rolling stock from the InterCity East Coast franchise to other parts of the network are a matter for the ROSCOs (Rolling stock leasing companies).