TRAIN journey times between Edinburgh and London could finally be cut by next December, as long-awaited plans are to be announced in the next two weeks.
Originally due to take effect this month, the track upgrades and faster trains are hoped to entice people away from air travel.
With flying often laboured with additional travel costs and time consumption such as getting to and from airports, it could mean that travelling between the two capital cities by rail may end up being faster.
Scots passengers will benefit from London-bound LNER services arriving in four hours and seven minutes with fewer stops, compared to the current four hours and 32 minutes.
The new transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, is due to confirm the plans in the next fortnight, after reduced journey times were originally announced in 2013.
According to research by LNER, 54% of passengers travelling between Edinburgh and London choose to fly compared to 46% who use the train.
With budget airlines offering routes to almost all London airports, flying is often cheaper, and the journey itself only takes 90 minutes on average in the air.
However, this does not include accounting for check-in and security times, and travelling to and from airports, which often costs more.
The improvements to rail travel come from the development of a 10-year improvement plan begun under the Conservative government.
This included a £1.2bn improvement to the East Coast Main Line and the purchase of faster LNER Azuma trains, costing £2.7bn.
The track upgrades themselves were completed in 2022, taking longer than expected, but a series of disagreements between rail operators over the allocation of time slots caused further delays.
They will allow the new trains, which accelerate faster out of stations, to run closer to their top speed of 125mph without being held up by slower-moving freight or local trains.
Speaking in January 2024, LNER managing director David Horne referred to the rail service as “door-to-door”, and said he wanted to drive up the percentage of passengers choosing it over air travel to 55-60%.
Speaking today, an LNER spokesperson said: “Our aspirations remain to run more frequent and faster trains with some services between Edinburgh and London being around four hours in journey time.
“Future timetables are still being finalised and any updates will be shared in due course.”
