TRAIN operator GNER is to run 12 new services each weekday on the East Coast main line.
Rail industry watchdogs have given approval for the additional services, which will benefit Huddersfield passengers .
The new services will run between Leeds and London King's Cross, six in each direction, from May 21.
It means weekday trains to London on the busiest stretch of the line will now run every half hour.
Extra trains will call at Wakefield, Doncaster, Newark, Grantham, Peterborough and Stevenage stations.
GNER chief executive Jonathan Metcalfe said: "We are very pleased to get final approval for these new services.
"This means that from May 21, Leeds will have a similar number of trains to and from London as other major northern cities such as Newcastle and Manchester."
The move comes despite a decision by the regulator to scrap GNER's East Coast main line franchise after its parent group Sea Containers ran into financial troubles.
GNER is now managing the line for the Department for Transport, but the franchise is expected to be let to a new operator in the next 12 to 18 months.
Last week, Virgin Rail Group and Stagecoach announced that they were preparing a joint bid to run the route.
FirstGroup, which runs the Trans-Pennine Express rail service, said it also intends to bid.
Penny Hemming, Yorkshire regional director of employers' body the CBI, welcomed GNER's announcement of extra trains.
She said: "This is good news because the quality, frequency and speed of our rail links to other regions, particularly London, are crucial to growing the Yorkshire economy."
GNER applied for approval for the 12 new services from the Office of Rail Regulation in March, 2005.
When GNER took over the East Coast main line service in 1996, there were 37 trains every weekday between Leeds and London.
The 65 services each weekday from May, 2007, represents a 75% increase since 1996.
Thirty years ago there were 26 trains each weekday between Leeds and London.
