LNER provides long-distance inter-city services on the East Coast Main Line to and from London; the principal destinations served are Leeds, York, Newcastle upon Tyne and Edinburgh.

During November 2017, the then Secretary of State for Transport, Chris Grayling, announced the early termination of the InterCity East Coast franchise in 2020, three years ahead of schedule; this action had followed persistent losses incurred by Virgin Trains East Coast (VTEC), the operator of the route.

[12][13] The DfT also announced that LNER would be the long-term brand applied to the InterCity East Coast franchise.

[17] A major aspect of LNER's vision for the franchise has been the rollout of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS).

David Horne, LNER's managing director, stated that digital signalling is necessary to unlock the full capabilities of its rolling stock, enabling drivers to continuously receive information in real time, yielding improvements in responsiveness, safety, and reliability over the traditional lineside signalling.

[19] By mid-2020, LNER had considerably curtailed its services in response to the significant decline of passenger travel amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

[24] Its workers are amongst those who have voted in favour of taking industrial action due to a dispute over pay and working conditions.

[25][26] LNER appealed to the public not to use its services on the days of the strikes, as it was only capable of operating a minimal timetable on those dates because of the number of its staff involved.

[35] This is in addition to the sole one train per day service, which in all, now provides five out and back workings to and from London King's Cross.

Since September 2016, VTEC had also hired three Class 90s from DB Cargo for use on services to Newark, York and Leeds.

On 15 May, the first Azuma train to enter service, a nine-carriage Class 800/1, was operated on the Leeds route from King's Cross.

[59] However, on 29 January 2020, LNER announced that they would be retaining a limited number of the InterCity 225 fleet to deliver all of the benefits of their December 2021 timetable.

[65] In November 2023, LNER announced an order of 10 tri-mode multiple units from CAF to serve the ECML, including an 8-year maintenance agreement.

[68] In November 2023, LNER placed an order for 10 ten-car tri-mode (electric, diesel and battery power) Civity trains from CAF.