Virgin Trains East Coast

Virgin Trains East Coast

InterCity 225 and HST at London King's Cross in May 2017
Overview
Franchise(s)	InterCity East Coast 1 March 2015 – 23 June 2018
Main route(s)	London–Aberdeen London–Edinburgh London–Newcastle London–York London–Leeds London–Newark
Other route(s)	Leeds–Aberdeen London–Inverness London–Glasgow London–Sunderland London–Skipton London–Bradford London–Harrogate London–Hull London–Lincoln
Fleet size	31 InterCity 225 sets 14 InterCity 125 sets
Stations called at	53
Stations operated	12
Parent company	Stagecoach Group (90%) Virgin Group (10%)
Reporting mark	GR
Predecessor	East Coast
Successor	London North Eastern Railway
Other
Website	www.lner.co.uk
Route map

Virgin Trains East Coast (VTEC) (legal name East Coast Main Line Company Limited^[1]) was a train operating company in the United Kingdom that operated the InterCity East Coast franchise on the East Coast Main Line between London, Yorkshire, the North East and Scotland. It commenced operations on 1 March 2015, taking over from East Coast as a joint venture between Stagecoach (90%) and Virgin Group (10%).

It was originally intended to run until 2023 and return £3.3 billion to the government in the form of franchise premiums, but, due to the line performing below VTEC's expectations, it was announced in May 2018 that the contract would be terminated early by the government; VTEC ceased operating on 23 June 2018, when operations passed to the government-owned operator, London North Eastern Railway.

While the operation itself was profitable, VTEC placed part of the blame for the under-performance with respect to their franchise bid on their belief that the government had failed to deliver expected upgrades or new trains, while the government claimed VTEC had simply overbid. Given it was the third instance of the East Coast franchise needing to be terminated early for financial reasons, it was announced the next permanent arrangement, to begin in 2020, would feature closer co-operation between the private sector and Network Rail, the state-owned operator of the infrastructure.