THE West Coast Mainline is to see new trains, increased capacity and quieter and more efficient services - as part of a £1.8bn investment by First Trenitalia.

Taking over as service provider on the West Coast Mainline on Sunday, the partnership of FirstGroup and Trenitalia will take over from Virgin Trains.

First Trenitalia has agreed a £350m contract with Hitachi Rail, which will see the firm provide and maintain 23 new intercity trains.

These new trains will bring additional capacity to services on the West Coast Mainline - which runs through Carlisle, Penrith and Lockerbie - with new trains coming in 2022.

The partnership says the new fleet will have better and more reliable free Wi-Fi , wireless charging for electronic devices and a "real-time passenger information system".

There are 453 seats on a seven-car service and 301 seats on a five-car service increasing capacity compared to the Class 221 Voyager trains they replace (which have 258 seats).

The seven-carriage version of the electric trains will have similar numbers of seats to a nine-carriage Pendolino, owing to the longer 26 metre carriages of the Hitachi trains.

By running on electric rather than diesel power for the vast majority of the route is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by around two-thirds across the franchise.

FirstGroup is introducing new rolling stock across all its train companies – Great Western Railway, Hull Trains, South Western Railway and TransPennine Express.

Together with this announcement, it represents an investment of £1.8bn in more than 1,000 vehicles.

Steve Montgomery, managing director of First Rail, said: “We look forward to beginning our Avanti West Coast services on Sunday and these new trains will help us really improve travel for passengers with more services, more seats, a better journey experience, enhanced catering and added comfort.”

Andrew Barr, group CEO of Hitachi Rail, said: “Based on Japanese bullet train technology, our new trains have proven to be the modern intercity train of choice, increasing passenger satisfaction wherever they run.

"We’re delighted to continue our excellent relationship with FirstGroup and Trenitalia, for whom we’ve delivered hundreds of trains across Italy and the UK.

"This new order, which will be built at our factory in the North East, is another vote of confidence in the success of our trains, which are both green and reliable.

The contract includes an agreement for aspects of the 23 new trains to be maintained by Hitachi Rail and Alstom.