The government has announced details of a £1.2 billion contract that will see an extra 270 carriages added to the busy East Coast Main Line.

Hitachi Rail Europe will build them at its plant in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham and they are expected to be in operation by 2019.

With the population growing all the time, the authorities realise how important it is to upgrade public transport networks and this deal will increase capacity on the Intercity line by 18 per cent.

This project forms part of the government's £5.8 billion Intercity Express Programme and comes shortly after the Department for Transport secured a £1.6 billion contract with Siemens, which will involve the firm providing more than 1,000 state-of-the-art carriages on the Thameslink line.

Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin said the latest agreement demonstrates the government's commitment to improving the nation's infrastructure.

He remarked: "This will not only deliver significant benefits to passengers by further slashing journey times and bolstering capacity, but will also stimulate economic growth through improved connectivity between some of Britain's biggest cities."