TransPennine Express

TransPennine Trains Limited, trading as TransPennine Express, is a British train operating company that has operated the TransPennine Express franchise area services since 28 May 2023. It runs regional and inter-city rail services between the major cities and towns of Northern England and Scotland. The company, which is government-owned, was established following poor performance by the previous operator, also called TransPennine Express. It has carried over the rolling stock, passenger services, and branding.

History

During the early 2020s, the incumbent operator of the TransPennine Express franchise, FirstGroup's TransPennine Express, suffered severe disruption of its services, which was largely attributable to events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2022–2023 United Kingdom railway strikes. On 11 May 2023, following numerous cancellations and service disruptions, the Department for Transport (DfT) announced that First Group's contract to operate the franchise would not be renewed and, as a result, TPE would cease operations on 28 May 2023. In its place, operations were taken over by operator of last resort (OLR) TransPennine Trains.

The performance of TransPennine Trains has been criticised, being amongst the least punctual train operators during 2023 and having a cancellation rate that exceeded one in eight trains during summer 2023. In October 2023, the operator announced that it would be temporarily cutting services from 320 services per day to 300, reducing off-peak trains between the cities of Leeds and Manchester, with the goal of improving both punctuality and reliability. TransPennine Trains' managing director, Chris Jackson, stated that this move allowed for greater driver training and helped to stabilise the timetable, and that the operator would reintroduce the full timetable by December 2024 at the latest. Shortly thereafter, the company released a new timetable comparison tool to aid customers in interpreting the service levels and changes enacted.

During early December 2023, TransPennine Trains' services were disrupted by industrial action as the train drivers belonging to the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF) trade union implemented a ban on overtime and a series of rolling strikes. That same month, the operator reinstated direct train services between Castleford and York for the first time in 50 years; this service change was facilitated by recent infrastructure improvement work undertaken as part of the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU).

Services

TransPennine Trains took over all services operated by its predecessor, TransPennine Express, on 28 May 2023.

The TransPennine Express routes are subdivided into three operations:

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

As of December 2023, the following services operate off-peak, seven days a week:

Peak hours

Following the December 2023 timetable change the following changes are made to services during peak hours:

• A Northern Trains service between Huddersfield and Castleford was transferred to TransPennine Express. This was converted to a peak hour extension of the Manchester Piccadilly to Huddersfield service to extend to York calling additionally at Deighton, Mirfield, Wakefield Kirkgate, and Normanton. This service runs 1 train every 2 hours at peak times.
• The Hull Paragon to Manchester Piccadilly service terminates at Manchester Victoria instead of Manchester Piccadilly and does not stop at stations between Leeds and Huddersfield. It also makes an additional stop at Stalybridge. 2 trains a day run to Liverpool Lime Street calling additionally at Lea Green (2tpd) and Newton-le-Willows (1tpd). Only the first train makes a return trip to Hull Paragon calling at Lea Green.
• Additional hourly services are added between Manchester Piccadilly and Leeds and some Manchester Piccadilly to Huddersfield services are extended to Leeds. These services have varying stopping patterns ranging from stopping at all stations to only stopping at Huddersfield. These services allow for more express services between Manchester and Leeds as well as ensuring 2tph to stations between Manchester and Leeds during peak times
• Liverpool Lime Street to Newcastle services will sometimes not stop at Stalybridge or Dewsbury during peak times due to the Manchester Victoria to Hull Paragon (Stalybridge) and Manchester Piccadilly to Leeds (Dewsbury) services stopping at these stations instead. 1tpd in each direction will not stop at Lea Green due to the Liverpool Lime Street to Hull Paragon service calling there instead.

Routes

Rolling stock

Upon commencing operations, TransPennine Express inherited the fleet of the previous franchisee. Various minor refurbishment programmes were quickly enacted. The oldest trains in the fleet, the Class 185 multiple-units, were subject to an interior deep clean, which included the replacement of all carpets. Furthermore, all of the seats were recovered and improvements to the onboard toilet facilities were made. By late 2023, TransPennine Express had also formulated its new trains programme, a longer-term initiative in which the operator stated its intention to introduce new technologies to support decarbonisation, the acceleration of efforts to cascade and eventually entirely remove diesel trains from its fleet, and enact a new long-term depot and maintenance strategy.

During September 2023, following a radical review by the DfT, it was announced that TransPennine Express's Nova 3 train sets, comprising Class 68 diesel locomotives hauling rakes of Mark 5A carriages, had been scheduled for withdrawal. This rolling stock was relatively new, yet had been beset by multiple challenges including technical issues, driver training, a downturn in passengers due to COVID-19, and noise complaints from neighbours of the Scarborough maintenance facility, which resulted in a persistently low utilisation rate being achieved. The DfT believes that the withdrawal of the Nova 3 sets can be adequately offset by maximising the utilisation of other trains, such as 19 Class 802 bi-mode train sets and the Class 185 DMUs. Chris Jackson, managing director of TransPennine Express, has advocated for the need to simplify the operator's fleet, resource planning, and overall business strategy.

Current fleet

Past fleet

References

1. First TransPennine Express
2. TransPennine Express (2016–2023)
3. TransPennine Express (disambiguation)
4. British Rail Class 185
5. British Rail Class 802
6. British Rail Class 350
7. Huddersfield line
8. British Rail Class 170
9. British Rail Mark 5A
10. British Rail Class 397
11. DfT OLR Holdings
12. CAF Civity
13. British Rail Class 68
14. Train operating company
15. West Coast Main Line
16. York Leeman Road depot
17. Arriva Trains Northern
18. CrossCountry
19. FirstGroup
20. Northern Rail