May 17, 2018 8.36 am This story is over 70 months old

LNER: 13 things you need to know

Passengers will not be affected, government promised.

The government terminated the franchise agreement with Stagecoach and Virgin for the East Coast Main Line on Wednesday and will take it back into public ownership, but a new business will run it — the London North Eastern Railway (LNER).

Here are 13 things you should know

  1. Virgin Trains East Coast’s franchise will be terminated on June 24, 2018
  2. London North Eastern Railway (LNER) will take over services immediately on the day for at least two years
  3. Trains will gradually transform to display LNER branding
  4. Tickets, timetables and train services will all stay the same even though a different operator will be in charge
  5. During the transition period you will still need to use Virgin Trains East Coast’s customer and ticket booking services
  6. All tickets bought are still valid for the dates shown on the ticket (including all season tickets and all pre-booked tickets)
  7. All tickets bought for future travel will still be valid for the dates shown on the ticket
  8. You can still buy and book tickets for future travel in the same way you do now, via the Virgin Trains East Coast website
  9. There will be no immediate changes to ticket prices, the government said
  10. Trains will continue to run as normal and no disruption is expected as a result of the change in operator
  11. The timetable and train times scheduled will remain the same under LNER, the government said
  12. People who are directly employed by Virgin Trains East Coast will transfer over to LNER. No disruption is expected to services as a result of this transfer
  13. At this stage, the government said the extra direct trains between Lincoln and London from April 2019 would not be affected