TransPennine Express

TransPennine Express

185108 at Manchester Piccadilly on 1 April 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 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 is one of the few UK train operating companies running 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 sections:

• 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 June 2016, the following services run regularly, Mondays to Saturdays (Sunday service is similar except where noted), with frequencies in trains per hour (tph):

North TransPennine Legend 2:50 Newcastle Central 2:36 Chester-le-Street 2:30 Durham 2:13 Darlington 2:38 Middlesbrough 2:28 Thornaby 2:14 Yarm 1:58 Northallerton 1:49 Thirsk 2:18 Scarborough 2:07 Seamer 1:50 Malton 1:23 York 1:54 Hull 1:36 Brough 1:30 Gilberdyke 1:24 Howden 1:18 Selby 1:09 South Milford 1:08 Garforth 1:04 Cross Gates 0:57 Leeds 0:40 Dewsbury 0:30 Huddersfield 0:13 Stalybridge 0:00 Manchester Piccadilly 0:00 Manchester Victoria 0:14 Manchester Airport 0:02 Manchester Oxford Road 0:08 Irlam 0:16 Birchwood 0:21 Warrington Central 0:27 Widnes 0:38 Liverpool South Parkway 0:34 Liverpool Lime Street Times shown are best times from Manchester Piccadilly or Manchester Victoria.

South TransPennine Legend 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 North West & Scotland Legend 3:26 Edinburgh Waverley ( St Andrew Square) 3:20 Haymarket 3:29 Glasgow Central ( St Enoch) 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 0:43 Wigan North Western 0:19 Manchester Oxford Road 0:16 Manchester Piccadilly 0:08 East Didsbury 0:05 Gatley 0:04 Heald Green 0:00 Manchester Airport Times shown are best times from Manchester Airport.

Future services

A twice-hourly service between Manchester and Newcastle will be phased in between December 2016 and December 2017, made up of the existing service from Liverpool and a reinstated service from Manchester Airport. Trains between Liverpool and Newcastle will be extended to Edinburgh via the East Coast Main Line, giving a twice-hourly service between Leeds and Edinburgh together with an hourly CrossCountry service. Trains between Liverpool and Scarborough will be rerouted via Manchester Victoria and Newton-le-Willows to provide a half-hourly fast service between Liverpool and Manchester. It is also planned to operate a six train per hour frequency between Manchester and Leeds, up from five today.

Direct Liverpool to Glasgow services via the West Coast Main Line will be reintroduced from December 2018, and the number of services from Manchester Airport to Scotland will increase.^[12]

Rolling stock

TransPennine Express inherited a fleet of 51 three-car Class 185 Desiros, 10 four-car electric Class 350 Desiros, and four two-car Class 170 Turbostars from First TransPennine Express. After 8 July 2016, the four remaining Class 170 left for Chiltern Railways to be converted to Class 168 sets. Once new rolling stock is delivered, 22 of the Class 185 units will be returned to Eversholt Rail Group with 29 units (87 vehicles) retained.^[13]

Current fleet

Class	Image	Type	Top speed		Number	Carriages	Routes operated	Built
			mph	km/h
185 Desiro		DMU	100	160	51	3	All TransPennine routes 4 are loaned to Northern on a daily basis[14][15]	2005–06
350/4 Desiro		EMU	110	180	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.^[16]

Class	Image	Type	Top speed		Number	Carriages	Routes operated	In service
			mph	km/h
68		Loco	100[17]	161	13	N/A	North TransPennine services	2018–19[18]
Mark 5A[19]		Coach	125	201	52[20]	5
		Driving Trailer			14[21]
397 Civity[22]		EMU	125	201	12	5	Liverpool/Manchester Airport-Scotland	2018–19[18]
802/2 AT300 [23][24][25]		Bi-Mode MU	125	201	19	5	North TransPennine services	2019[23]

Past fleet

Former units operated by TransPennine Express include:

Class	Image	Type	Number	Notes	Built	Withdrawn
170/3 Turbostar		DMU	9	Transferred to Chiltern Railways	2000	2016

Managed stations

TransPennine Express services run over a large area of northern England and southern Scotland. 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][26]

Some stations from the former First TransPennine Express franchise 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. Hitachi will maintain the AT300 fleet at Doncaster Carr and Craigentinny.^[27] 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).^[18]

References

External links

Media related to TransPennine Express at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website
• Train Timetables - First TransPennine Express