First Transpennine Express
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First TransPennine Express is a train operating company in the United Kingdom. It operates regular regional services in the north of England. The franchise has been granted for eight years to a joint operation by First Group and Keolis, with an optional extension of five years. It was created by removing the long-distance routes previously operated by Arriva Trains Northern and First North Western and merging them into a single franchise. From 10th December 2004, TransPennine Express changed its name to First TransPennine Express.
Launched on 1 February 2004, its services are split into three routes:
- North TransPennine: services run from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Middlesbrough, Scarborough and Hull, via Leeds and Huddersfield, to Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester Airport, and Liverpool Lime Street
- South TransPennine: services run from Cleethorpes and Grimsby, via Scunthorpe, Doncaster and Sheffield, to Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Airport
- North West: services from Windermere, Kendal, and Barrow-in-Furness, via Lancaster, Preston, and Bolton, to Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Airport (which do not cross the Pennines).
Service patterns
The off-peak weekday service pattern is as below.North TransPennine
The core route between Manchester Piccadilly and Leeds sees four trains per hour between the two cities. This is made up of an hourly Liverpool Lime Street to Scarborough service, an hourly Manchester Airport to Newcastle service, an hourly Manchester Airport to Middlesbrough service and an hourly Manchester Piccadilly to Hull service.The Manchester to Liverpool sector is supplemented by Central Trains hourly service from Norwich to Liverpool, thus giving half hourly fast services between Manchester and Liverpool. Similarly, the service between Leeds and Newcastle is boosted by an hourly Virgin Trains service; York to Newcastle is also supplemented by GNER’s services. Both Virgin and GNER run faster (125mph vs 100mph), but have more restricted stopping patterns. It can be faster for passengers wishing to travel to Newcastle to change off First TransPennine Express at York.
South TransPennine
An hourly service operates from Manchester Airport to Cleethorpes via Mancester Piccadilly, Stockport, Sheffield, Doncaster and Scunthorpe. The Manchester to Sheffield sector is supplemented by Central Trains hourly Liverpool to Norwich service, thus giving a half hourly fast service frequency between Manchester and Sheffield.TransPennine North West & Scotland
An hourly service operates between Manchester Airport and Lancaster, then continuing every two hours alternating between Barrow-in-Furness and Windermere, the latter via Oxenholme. Combining with Northern Rail’s twice-hourly service, this gives at least three trains per hour between Manchester Piccadilly and Preston. Additionally, the Manchester Piccadilly to Glasgow Central and Edinburgh service, operated by Virgin Trains, runs two-hourly between Manchester Piccadilly, Preston, Lancaster, and Oxenholme.These services operated by Virgin will eventually pass over to TransPennine Express operation once the new CrossCountry franchise has been let. It is not known yet which stock TPE will use to operate these services since the Class 185 order has been slashed from 56 to 51 and the incoming Class 170/3s from South West Trains are in exchange for 3-car Class 158s, and are intended for use either on the Manchester-Hull route or on Mancehster Airport-Blackpool North/Barrow/Windermere services. Either way none of the above stock is suitable since they are restricted to 100mph (Class 158s 90mph), and pathing for these services will be difficult along the West Coast Main Line north of Carnforth should 100mph stock be used.
Operating information
First TransPennine Express is one of the few train operating companies in the United Kingdom running 24 hours a day, including through New Years Eve night. For example, trains run between York and Manchester Airport at least every two hours every night of the week.
The franchise is currently operated with Class 158 and Class 175 diesel multiple units. In March 2006, new Class 185 units, constructed in Germany by Siemens, entered service, and will eventually take over most services, alleviating some of the chronic overcrowding on certain areas of the network. Once there are enough Class 185 in service, the Class 175 units will be transferred to Arriva Trains Wales, from whom they are currently sub-hired. The Class 175 units are only used west of the Pennines, on the Manchester Airport to Barrow-in-Furness/Windermere trains.
A new depot at Ardwick, about a mile east of Manchester Piccadilly, is nearing completion, and will be the base for the Class 185 fleet. A smaller depot, to provide stabling and lighter maintenance east of the Pennines, is being built at York and at Cleethorpes.
It was planned to operate all services with the new Class 185 units, but due to an increase in routes and services, First TransPennine Express will take on the Class 170 Turbostar fleet currently used by South West Trains for their Waterloo–Salisbury–Exeter services. TransPennine Express will trade some of their Class 158 units for the Turbostars, which they will probably use on the Hull-Manchester service, as the 185 is too heavy to run at full speed east of Leeds. The 100mph Class 185 units entered passenger service on 14 March 2006 on the Manchester–Hull route, east of Leeds restricted to mostly 75mph.
The First TransPennine Express control centre is at Manchester. The previous Arriva control centre was at York, and is now the Northern Rail control centre.
The livery to accompany the new units will be similar to the new First Great Western ‘wave’ livery. New units are being delivered in First’s old livery, and are being converted to the new one (see the photograph at the beginning of this article) upon arrival in the United Kingdom using vinyl wraps.
Future services
There is speculation that the current Central Trains service between Liverpool Lime Street and Norwich may be truncated at Nottingham, with First TransPennine Express taking over the Liverpool to Nottingham sector but this has yet to be confirmed. It was reported that the company are planning to introduce High Speed Trains on the Manchester Piccadilly–Newcastle routes, but this has, as yet, come to nothing and seems unlikely to materialise. With the imminent break up of Virgin Cross Country, it has been discussed that TPE could expand services north of York and Preston.External links
- [Official web site]
- [Photographs of First TransPennine Express trains] from freefoto.com
| Current scheduled passenger train operators in Great Britain and Northern Ireland | |
|---|---|
| Domestic: | Arriva Trains Wales - c2c - Central Trains - Chiltern Railways - First Capital Connect First Great Western - First ScotRail - First TransPennine Express - Grand Central Railway1 Great North Eastern Railway>GNER - Heathrow Connect - Hull Trains - Island Line - Merseyrail - Midland Mainline Northern Rail - Northern Ireland Railways2 - one - Silverlink - Southeastern - Southern South West Trains - Virgin Trains |
| International: | Enterprise 2 - Eurostar |
| Airport Link: | Gatwick Express - Heathrow Express - Stansted Express3 |
| Sleeper: | Caledonian Sleeper4 - Night Riviera5 |
| 1 Starts December 2006 – 2 Operated on the Irish railway network - 3 Operated by one 4 Operated by First ScotRail – 5 Operated by First Great Western | |
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