First TransPennine Express

First TransPennine Express is a train operating company in the United Kingdom. It is a joint operation between First Group (55%) and Keolis (45%). It operates regular services in the north including services linking the west and east coasts of England across the Pennines. The franchise will run for eight years with an optional extension of five years.

The original service and brand name TransPennine Express was launched in late 1998 by Northern Spirit, and maintained by its successor, Arriva Trains Northern. On 1 February 2004, the service became a separate franchise, also incorporating the Manchester Airport to Cumbria and Lakelines (Oxenholme to Windermere) routes from First North Western but minus the Bradford to Blackpool service. TransPennine Express later took over the Manchester Airport to Blackpool service.

First TransPennine Express is one of the few train operating companies in the United Kingdom running 24 hours a day, including through New Year's Eve night. For example, trains run between York, Leeds and Manchester Airport at least every three hours every night of the week.

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 Huddersfield to Leeds section is the busiest section on any TransPennine Express service.

The Manchester to Liverpool section is supplemented by East Midlands Trains' hourly service from Norwich and a Northern Rail hourly Liverpool to Manchester Airport express service (which runs via Newton-le-Willows rather than Warrington), thus giving three fast services between Manchester and Liverpool per hour. Similarly, the service between Leeds and Newcastle is boosted by an hourly CrossCountry service; York to Newcastle is also supplemented by East Coast and CrossCountry services.

Under the previous franchise, Newcastle services used to continue to Sunderland. When First and Keolis first took over the service they extended the Manchester to Hull service to Bridlington, a decision which has since been reversed.

Times shown are best times from Manchester Piccadilly
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 * Newcastle branch
 * Newcastle
 * Chester-le-Street
 * Durham
 * Darlington


 * Middlesbrough branch
 * Middlesbrough
 * Thornaby
 * Yarm


 * Northallerton
 * Thirsk


 * Scarborough branch
 * Scarborough
 * Seamer
 * Malton


 * York


 * Hull branch
 * Hull
 * Brough
 * Selby


 * Garforth
 * Leeds City
 * Dewsbury
 * Huddersfield
 * Stalybridge
 * Manchester Piccadilly


 * Manchester Airport branch
 * Manchester Airport


 * Manchester Oxford Road
 * Birchwood
 * Warrington Central
 * Liverpool Lime Street

South TransPennine
An hourly service operates from Manchester Airport to Cleethorpes via Manchester Piccadilly, Stockport, Sheffield, Doncaster and Scunthorpe. The Manchester to Sheffield sector is supplemented by East Midlands Trains hourly Liverpool to Norwich service, thus giving a half-hourly service frequency between Manchester and Sheffield.


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 * Cleethorpes
 * Grimsby Town railway station
 * Habrough
 * Barnetby
 * Scunthorpe
 * Doncaster
 * Meadowhall
 * Sheffield
 * Dore
 * Chinley
 * Stockport
 * Manchester Piccadilly
 * Mauldeth Road
 * Burnage
 * East Didsbury
 * Gatley
 * Heald Green
 * Manchester Airport

Transpennine North West
TransPennine North West is one of the three rail services provided by First TransPennine Express, running in Northern England. It runs from Manchester Airport to Windermere, Kendal and Barrow-in-Furness, via Lancaster, Preston, Bolton and Manchester Piccadilly. It uses sections of the Styal Line, Manchester to Preston Line, West Coast Main Line, Furness Line and Windermere Branch Line. This route was formerly operated by First North Western.

From December 2007, this part of the First TransPennine Express network expanded to serve Penrith, Carlisle, Lockerbie, Motherwell, Glasgow Central, and the route to Haymarket and Edinburgh Waverley. First TransPennine Express took over these services from Virgin West Coast, who took over these routes on a temporary basis following the takeover of the Cross Country franchise by CrossCountry. Carstairs is also served by one terminating train from Edinburgh on Monday to Thursday evenings only, which connects with a Virgin Trains service from Glasgow to Crewe.


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 * Edinburgh Branch
 * Edinburgh
 * Haymarket
 * Glasgow Branch
 * Glasgow Central
 * Motherwell
 * Carstairs


 * Lockerbie
 * Carlisle
 * Penrith
 * Windermere branch
 * Windermere
 * Staveley
 * Burnside
 * Kendal
 * Oxenholme Lake District
 * Barrow-in-Furness branch
 * Barrow-in-Furness
 * Roose
 * Dalton
 * Ulverston
 * Cark and Cartmel
 * Kents Bank
 * Grange-over-Sands
 * Arnside
 * Silverdale
 * Carnforth


 * Lancaster
 * Blackpool branch
 * Blackpool North
 * Layton
 * Poulton-le-Fylde
 * Kirkham and Wesham


 * Preston
 * Chorley
 * Bolton
 * Salford Crescent
 * Deansgate
 * Manchester Oxford Road
 * Manchester Piccadilly
 * Manchester Airport

Rolling stock


The franchise is operated with Class 185 and Class 170 diesel multiple units. When first created, the franchise operated a mixed fleet of Class 158 (inherited from Arriva Trains Northern) and Class 175 (originally from First North Western, but sub-leased from Arriva Trains Wales).

In March 2006 new three-car Class 185 units, constructed in Germany by Siemens, began to enter service and took over most services. A new depot at Ardwick, about a mile east of Manchester Piccadilly was built as the base for the Class 185 fleet. A smaller depot, to provide stabling and lighter maintenance east of the Pennines, has been built at York and another at Cleethorpes. The Class 185 units were delivered in the First Group 'neon-style' livery. The "i" in the logo of Keolis is used as the 'i' in the TransPennine Express logo in addition to the FirstGroup 'flyling f' logo. The first eight units were sent over in First’s old livery, and were converted to the new one (see the photograph at the beginning of this article) using vinyl wraps. The arrival of the Class 185 allowed the Class 175 units to be returned to Arriva Trains Wales.

The Class 185 trains proved popular with off-peak travellers although these satisfaction levels decrease for passengers undertaking long-distance journeys and at peak-times.

Despite the 185s being bigger than 2 car 158s, 185s frequently leave passengers behind due to severe overcrowding at peak times. Projected passenger numbers will likely mean 100–125 mph 8 car units are needed by 2014.

It was planned to operate all services with the new Class 185 units. However, weight restrictions on the Hull-Leeds line mean the Class 185 units are limited to 65–75 mph (120 km/h) east of Micklefield. To solve this problem and create extra capacity across their network First TransPennine Express has started to take on a nine-strong fleet of lighter Class 170 Turbostar units, 8 of which were formerly used by South West Trains (SWT) on their Waterloo–Salisbury–Exeter services. In return SWT has received eleven surplus Class 158 units from TransPennine Express which will be upgraded to the same standard as SWT's Class 159 units. TransPennine Express have also since received one additional 170 (170309) formerly used by Central Trains, and numbered 170399 whilst there.

The two-car Class 170 Turbostars are being used on Manchester-Hull and also on a small number of Manchester Airport - Sheffield/Cleethorpes services to allow the release of 185s for Anglo-Scottish services. on Sundays they work some services to York however Only Hull, Sheffield and Manchester Piccadilly based train crews are trained to work class 170 stock, limiting their appearance on other routes. Since introduction with TransPennine Express, They have been refurbished to include CCTV, plug sockets at table seats, replacement seat covers and an accessible toilet. They have also had 8 first class seats removed and had 13 standard class seats inserted in their place.

The class 170s are maintained at Crofton depot, east of Wakefield, but may visit Ardwick on occasion for wheel turning, fuelling, or for emptying of the toilet waste tanks. However, none of the Ardwick depot drivers are trained to move them, and thus a TPE driver has to move them around the depot complex.

Whilst the class 170s initially suffered poor reliability, concerted efforts by maintenance staff at FTPE have raised their miles per casualty figures close to the levels recorded for the class 185 fleet.

Future fleet
TransPennine Express had maintained an ambition to increase its fleet capacity by adding an extra carriage to some or all of its Class 185 units. However, on December 22, 2008, the Department for Transport announced it had issued an invitation to tender for 200 new carriages to form diesel multiple units, some of which are for TransPennine Express, to Bombardier Transportation, Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles, Chinese Sourced Railway Equipment on behalf of CSR Nanjing Puzhen Rolling Stock, and Hyundai Rotem, with Siemens not included. The DfT expects to announce its preferred bidder in April 2009 and the units to enter service by 2012. The invitation to tender follows the issuing of a Contract Notice in the Official Journal of the European Union which outlined the scope of the contract to be the supply of between 200 and 250 new DMU vehicles with an option for a further 100. The Contract Notice specifies that those parties expressing in an interest must have the ability to design and manufacture DMUs which are 23 metres in length, capable of a maximum speed of 100 mph, formed of 2, 3, and/or 4 cars, capable of operation in multiple, and gangwayed throughout, both within units and units in multiple.

On the 23 July 2009, the DfT announced major changes to electrification policy, which meant that the order for new DMU vehicles would be shelved. Following the planned electrification of the Manchester to Liverpool line, services between Manchester and Scotland will be operated by four-carriage Class 350 electric multiple units which are currently operating services on the West Coast Main Line with London Midland from London Euston. This will enable the diesel trains currently used on the Manchester to Scotland services to be transferred onto other TransPennine Express routes.

Performance
Figures released by the ORR for the fourth quarter of the financial year 2009/10 were down on last year at 91.6% (PPM) and also down slightly for MAA at 92.2%. These figures are above the sector level for this quarter.