A new fleet of trains with faster acceleration will cut journey times on the East Coast Main Line by up to 22 minutes, Virgin Trains has said.

The trains, which will be launched in 2018, will enable passengers to travel between London and Edinburgh in four hours.

They will accelerate from 0-125mph around a minute quicker than the current fleet.

Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, unveiled the first of the new trains at London King's Cross.

The 65 new trains will be built by Japanese firm Hitachi at its manufacturing plant in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.

They will be named Virgin Azuma, which is the Japanese translation for "east".

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