North-East rail passengers will reap the benefits of a £1bn revamp of cross-country services from today.

Virgin Trains has created a new regional Inter City rail network for the UK, which means two trains per hour will leave Newcastle, Darlington and Durham to Sheffield, Derby and Birmingham.

New 125mph trains will speed up route times after a £200m upgrade of cross country routes to cater for the faster trains.

The upgrade will also allow for "tilting" trains to be introduced by 2004.

A new direct service to South Wales has also been introduced. Going north, there are now 15 trains per day, compared with just three in the old timetable, to Berwick and Edinburgh, with some continuing to Dundee and Aberdeen.

The regional service connects 115 towns and cities, with brand new 125-mph trains operating regularly.

The CrossCountry services will be operated by new voyager trains with on-board shops, power points for charging mobile phones and laptop computers, and "windowgazer" route cards to tell passengers what they can see as they travel through the Britain.

The new timetable is the culmination of four years of consultation with Railtrack, the Strategic Rail Authority, Rail Passengers Committees and local authorities.

Ernie Preston, secretary of the Rail Passengers Committee North East, said: "Generally we welcome the news. I think passengers are going to benefit from it, with through services to more places.

"In that sense it is very positive, and there has been investment in new trains.

"But just one note of caution is that the number of trains have increased, but there are less seats on board. So there are half the number of coaches on any one train, but more frequent trains. We will be watching very closely for possible overcrowding problems."

Anyone wanting specific train times should call 08457 48 49 50 or to book tickets phone 08457 222 333.