TransPennine Express

TransPennine Express

Class 185 Desiro at Manchester Piccadilly in 2016
Overview
Franchise(s)	TransPennine Express 1 April 2016 – 31 March 2023
Main route(s)	North West England, Yorkshire and Humber, North East England, Scotland
Fleet size	61 units
Stations operated	19
National Rail abbreviation	TP
Parent company	FirstGroup
Website	www.tpexpress.co.uk

TransPennine Express (legally known as First TransPennine Express Limited)^[1] is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup operating the TransPennine Express franchise. It runs regular express regional railway, and intercity services between the major cities of Northern England as well as Scotland.

The franchise operates all its services to and through Manchester covering three main routes. The service provides rail links for major towns and cities such as Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Sheffield, Hull, Leeds, York, Scarborough, Middlesbrough and Newcastle.

TransPennine Express runs trains 24 hours a day, including through New Year's Eve night. Trains run between York, Leeds and Manchester Airport at least every three hours every night of the week.

History

The TransPennine Express brand was launched in the early 1990s by British Rail's Regional Railways sector.^[2] It became part of Regional Railways North East and on 2 March 1997 was privatised with Northern Spirit and its successor, Arriva Trains Northern maintaining the brand.^[3]

In 2000, the Strategic Rail Authority announced that it planned to reorganise the North West Regional Railways and Regional Railways North East franchises operated by First North Western and Arriva Trains Northern. A TransPennine Express franchise would be created for the long-distance regional services, the remaining services being operated by a new Northern franchise.^[4]

In July 2003, the TransPennine franchise was awarded to a joint venture between FirstGroup and Keolis, and the services operated by Arriva Trains Northern and First North Western were transferred to First TransPennine Express on 1 February 2004.^[5] On 11 November 2007, the services from Manchester to Edinburgh and Glasgow via the West Coast Main Line formerly operated by Virgin CrossCountry were transferred to First TransPennine Express.^[6]

In August 2014, the Department for Transport announced FirstGroup, Keolis/Go-Ahead and Stagecoach had been shortlisted to bid for the next franchise.^[7] In December 2015, FirstGroup was awarded the franchise with TransPennine Express taking over on 1 April 2016. The franchise will run until 31 March 2023 with an option to extend for two years.^[8][9][10]

As part of a recasting of the franchise map by the Department for Transport, services from Manchester Airport to Blackpool North, Manchester Airport to Barrow in Furness and Oxenholme to Windermere were transferred to the Northern franchise on 1 April 2016.^[11]

Services

The TransPennine Express routes are subdivided into three operations:

• North TransPennine, which includes all routes that pass through the core section between Manchester and Leeds;
• South TransPennine, which includes services running on the Hope Valley line and the South Humberside Main Line;
• TransPennine North West, which consists of services on the West Coast Main Line.

Details of each route, including maps and timetables, are on the TransPennine Express official website (see External links, below). As of May 2018, following the transfer of the Manchester to Huddersfield Northern stopping service to TPE, there is no longer a regular service between some of the intermediate Pennine stations, most daytime services either stop at Mossley and Slaithwaite, or Greenfield and Marsden. The following services run regularly, Mondays to Saturdays (Sunday service is similar except where noted), with frequencies in trains per hour (tph):

North TransPennine 2:14 Newcastle 2:07 Chester-le-Street 2:00 Durham 1:47 Darlington 2:21 Middlesbrough 2:13 Thornaby 2:02 Yarm 1:37 Northallerton 1:34 Thirsk 2:03 Scarborough 1:53 Seamer 1:36 Malton 1:12 York 1:54 Hull 1:36 Brough 1:30 Gilberdyke 1:24 Howden 1:18 Selby 1:09 South Milford 1:08 Garforth 0:48 Leeds 1:04 Cottingley 1:01 Morley 0:47 Batley 0:40 Dewsbury 0:46 Ravensthorpe 0:43 Mirfield 0:38 Deighton 0:29 Huddersfield 0:28 Slaithwaite 0:27 Marsden 0:19 Greenfield 0:17 Mossley 0:13 Stalybridge 0:00 Manchester Victoria 0:02 Manchester Oxford Road 0:00 Manchester Piccadilly 0:14 Manchester Airport 0:16 Newton-le-Willows 0:20 Lea Green 0:38 Liverpool Lime Street Times shown are best times from Manchester Piccadilly or Manchester Victoria.

South TransPennine 3:02 Cleethorpes 2:49 Grimsby Town Habrough 2:27 Barnetby 2:12 Scunthorpe Althorpe Crowle Thorne South Hatfield and Stainforth Kirk Sandall 1:45 Doncaster Conisbrough Mexborough Swinton Rotherham Central 1:21 Meadowhall 1:11 Sheffield Dore Chinley 0:30 Stockport 0:14 Manchester Piccadilly Mauldeth Road Burnage East Didsbury Gatley Heald Green 0:00 Manchester Airport Times shown are best times from Manchester Airport.

TransPennine Express TransPennine North West & TransPennine Scotland 3:26 Edinburgh Waverley 3:20 Haymarket 3:29 Glasgow Central 3:15 Motherwell 3:06 Carstairs 2:27 Lockerbie 2:06 Carlisle 1:51 Penrith 1:28 Oxenholme Lake District 1:14 Lancaster 0:58 Preston 0:16 Manchester Piccadilly 0:00 Manchester Airport Times shown are best times from Manchester Airport

Rolling stock

First TransPennine Express inherited a fleet of four Class 170 and 51 Class 185 DMUs as well as ten Class 350/4 EMUs from First Kelios TransPennine Express, although the Class 170s left for Chiltern Railways to be converted to Class 168s shortly afterwards. After the new rolling stock has been delivered, 22 Class 185 units will be returned to Eversholt Rail Group,^[13] whilst the Class 350s are due to transfer to West Midlands Trains after the Class 397 units enter service in 2019.^[14]

Current fleet

Class	Image	Type	Top speed		Number	Carriages	Routes operated	Built
			mph	km/h
Diesel multiple units
185 Desiro		DMU	100	160	51	3	All TransPennine routes 4 are loaned to Northern on a daily basis[15][16]	2005–06
Electric multiple units
350/4 Desiro		EMU	110	175	10	4	Manchester Airport–Edinburgh/Glasgow	2013–14

Future fleet

A total of 44 brand new five-car trains will be delivered to TransPennine Express.^[8]

Class	Brand	Image	Type	Top speed		Number	Carriages	Routes operated	Built	In service
				mph	km/h
Locomotive hauled stock
68	Nova 3		Loco	100[17]	160	14[18]	5	Liverpool Lime Street to Scarborough via Manchester Victoria Manchester Airport to Middlesbrough	2016–17	2018–19[19]
Mark 5A[20]			Coach	125	200	52[21]			2017–
			DTSO			14[22]
Electric multiple units
397 Civity[23]	Nova 2		EMU	125	200	12	5	Manchester Airport to Glasgow Central/ Edinburgh Waverley Liverpool Lime Street to Glasgow Central/Edinburgh Waverley	2017–	2018–19[19]
Bi-mode multiple units
802/2 AT300 [24][25][26]	Nova 1		BMMU	125	200	19	5	Liverpool Lime Street/Manchester Airport to Edinburgh Waverley via Newcastle	2017–	2019[24]

Past fleet

Former units operated by TransPennine Express include:

Class	Image	Type	Top speed		Number	Carriages	Notes	Built	Left Fleet
			mph	km/h
170/3 Turbostar		DMU	100	160	4	2	Transferred to Chiltern Railways	2000	2016

Managed stations

TransPennine Express services run over a large area of northern England and southern Scottish Lowlands. Many of the largest stations they serve are managed by other train operating companies or Network Rail.

TransPennine Express manages the following 19 stations:^[11][27]

Some stations from the former TransPennine Express franchise (First Kelios) were transferred to Northern. These include Arnside, Barrow-in-Furness, Birchwood, Burneside, Carnforth, Grange-over-Sands, Kendal, Staveley, Ulverston, Warrington Central and Windermere.^[11]

Depots

Siemens maintains the Class 185 and 350 fleets at Ardwick depot in Manchester with a smaller facility in York. Scottish stabling points for both stock include Corkerhill C.S.M.D. (Glasgow) and Craigentinny T.&R.S.M.D. (Edinburgh). Hitachi will maintain the AT300 fleet at Doncaster Carr and Craigentinny.^[28] The new EMUs and loco-hauled sets will be maintained by Alstom, on behalf of TransPennine Express, at Longsight (Manchester), Edge Hill (Liverpool) and Polmadie (Glasgow).^[19]

TransPennine Express have depots for its train crews at Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester Airport (conductors), York, Newcastle, Scarborough, Hull, Cleethorpes, Sheffield, Preston, Liverpool and Glasgow Central (conductors). Scottish drivers are currently provided by contract from Freightliner (Glasgow and Dunbar depots) until a TPE driver is established (2018/2019). Freightliner drive all Glasgow services between Glasgow and Carlisle and also do the first and last trains to/from Edinburgh with TPE's Preston and Manchester Piccadilly drivers doing services during the day.

References

External links

• Media related to TransPennine Express at Wikimedia Commons
• Official website