CUSTOMERS and communities along the new Virgin Trains East Coast network will be able to bid for a share of a £3 million innovation fund, the operator has announced.
It came as the first train decorated with full Virgin East Coast livery completed its inaugural journey from London to Scotland yesterday, as the new eight-year franchise got under way.
The service arrived in Edinburgh Waverley shortly after 3pm with managing director, David Horne, on board.
Mr Horne is in charge of running the newly-privatised franchise on behalf of Inter City Railways, a Virgin-Stagecoach partnership.
Although the trains will carry Virgin livery, the consortium is actually 90 per cent owned by Sir Brian Souter's Stagecoach business.
Mr Horne revealed that £500,000 will be awarded each year of the franchise from 2017 onwards to winning bids from customers and communities along the East Coast route.
He said: "Passengers using the East Coast mainline are already set to benefit from hundreds of millions of pounds of infrastructure investment and service improvements over the next decade. Our new 'Customer and Communities Improvement Fund' builds on that but puts the decision-making power firmly in the hands of the customers and communities we serve.
"The £3m fund allows Virgin Trains East Coast passengers to shape the future of their train line like never before. We will listen to what they want as we build our customer offering around our passengers.
"Asking the communities along the route what they want will also complement the major programmes we are committed to around helping young people and small businesses along one of Britain's most important train lines."
The group has promised to invest £140m in the franchise over the next eight years, including a £21m refresh of the existing fleet and the introduction of regular four-hour journey times between Edinburgh and London from May 2020.
Claire Perry, Transport Minister, said: "Today is the start of a new chapter for the East Coast franchise.
"Passengers will benefit from thousands of extra seats, new connections and improved services between London and Scotland. The deal also means more than £3bn will be returned to taxpayers."
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