page_title: InterCity East Coast
section_title: Virgin Trains East Coast
hierarchical_section_title: InterCity East Coast / History / Virgin Trains East Coast
caption_attribution_description: English: Virgin Trains East Coast HST at Leeds
context_page_description: InterCity East Coast is a railway franchise for passenger trains on the East Coast Main Line in the United Kingdom from London King's Cross to Hull, Leeds, Bradford, Harrogate, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Aberdeen. It was formed during the privatisation of British Rail and transferred to the private sector in April 1996.
  Initially operated by Great North Eastern Railway, it has since been operated by National Express East Coast, East Coast and Virgin Trains East Coast. It has now been taken over by London North Eastern Railway.
context_section_description: In January 2014, FirstGroup, Keolis/Eurostar International Limited (EIL) and Stagecoach/Virgin were announced as the shortlisted bidders for the new franchise. In November 2014, the franchise was awarded to Stagecoach/Virgin, who trading as Virgin Trains East Coast (VTEC) commenced operating the franchise on 1 March 2015.
  In November 2017 Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling announced the early termination of the East Coast franchise in 2020, three years ahead of schedule, following losses on the route by the operator. Virgin Trains East Coast had been due to pay more than £2 billion in franchise premiums to the government over the last four years of its contract.
  Secretary Grayling claimed the losses were due to VTEC simply overestimating future growth in passenger revenue in its bid calculations, meaning franchise payments due to the government exceeded the profits being returned by running the services, while others believe the delays in state owned Network Rail delivering expected infrastructure upgrades meant the company could not operate the increased number of services needed to generate this increased revenue.
  Termination was brought forward in February 2018 to June 2018.
caption: An InterCity 125 seen at Leeds station, operated by Virgin Trains East Coast.
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