Passengers will benefit from brand new furniture

The company is promising passengers using the service between the North East, Yorkshire and London new state-of-the-art facilities.

Each of its 300 carriages will be stripped back to the bare metal shell and completely refitted with new interiors.

Some of the trains, which were designed in the late 1980s, have been in use for 14 years and have covered about three million miles each.

GNER chief executive Christopher Garnett told BBC Look North: "They (passengers) will virtually see a new train when they get inside it.

"It will be new carpets, new seats, new ceiling, new lights, new toilets - new everything."

The new seats include an extra two inches of leg room

Regular users of the GNER service welcomed news.

Passenger Ian Wilson said: "I've seen a gradual deterioration in the carriage facilities to the point where things like carpets and chairs are frayed around the edges.

"They would benefit from a refurbishment and it would certainly benefit the customers.

He added: "As a businessman I would like to see more business facilities so an option to plug my PC in and connect to the internet would be marvellous."

All of GNER's coaches will be rebuilt to the new design standard at Bombardier's Wakefield site, before entering passenger service on a rolling basis from September.