East Coast is celebrating an anniversary of its own – the first birthday of its timetable and First Class complimentary food and drink service. East Coast is revamping its First Class menu for summer following a patriotic theme, in-keeping with the Queen’s jubilee, including old favourites such as its Great British Breakfast, with new arrivals such as jacket potatoes and coronation chicken, posh pork pies with piccalilli, and Eton mess – all fit for a right royal celebration.

The introduction of the newly revamped menu follows closely behind the one year anniversary of the introduction of East Coast’s new timetable and complimentary food and drinks in First Class.

East Coast Managing Director Karen Boswell said: “The introduction of our new timetable and First Class complimentary service on 22 May 2011 was a great achievement for the business and we are really proud of the hard work and dedication of our staff who have contributed so much to its success.”

East Coast launched the biggest timetable change on the route in over 20 years on 22 May 2011. This saw the introduction of 19 new weekday and 22 new weekend services, including its direct Edinburgh and Newcastle to London ‘Flying Scotsman’ service, a new daily direct service between London and Lincoln, and a new seven days-a-week service between London and Harrogate.

Karen Boswell added: “The launch date was a truly momentous occasion when we unveiled the fantastic new ‘Flying Scotsman’ service, which runs in just four hours from Edinburgh to London, and two hours 37 minutes from Newcastle to the capital.

“This has been a really popular service and marks a new era in the now 150-year history of the ‘Flying Scotsman’.

“The extra services from provided an additional 10,800 seats per weekday for passengers and offered improved journey times, better connections at our key station, and a standardised clock-face timetable, making it easier to use and more memorable to use.

“Improvements to First Class, including better Wi Fi and the introduction of a Quiet coach and our complimentary food and drink service, have proved really popular, with a 21% overall increase in the number travelling First Class in 2011-2012.

“Of these, we have seen a 31% increase in First Class passenger journeys on our Leeds to London services, 22% from Newcastle to London, and a massive 39% increase on our flagship London to Edinburgh route.

“Since the complimentary service was introduced, we have served four million cups of tea and coffee, 120,000 bacon sandwiches and 150,000 Great British Breakfasts to our First Class passengers.”