YOUR recent editorial about the East Coast franchise did not reflect reality; both taxpayers and passengers are getting a far better deal under Virgin Trains.

In this franchise, Virgin Trains will pay the Government £3.3bn – more than three times the £1bn paid to taxpayers under state ownership. For passengers, one of our first moves was to cut walk-up, standard fares by ten per cent, and we’re now providing 10,000 more discounted advance fares every week. We’re investing £140m to improve the service, including refurbishing the entire fleet we inherited – a programme that is now almost complete and will see all of the carpets, toilets and 24,000 seats replaced. And next year we will bring in our new state-of-the-art Azuma trains.

High quality services, now and in the future, also depend on Network Rail: to improve customer experience and satisfaction, passengers need investment in the infrastructure, and better and more consistent performance from it to support our package of initiatives and innovations.

With investment in infrastructure, and the investment we're making in trains and customer services, taxpayers, passengers and communities along the line are all benefitting.

David Horne, Managing Director, Virgin Trains East Coast.