TransPennine Express

This article is about the 2023 operator. For previous franchises, seeTransPennine Express (2016–2023)andFirst TransPennine Express.

TransPennine Express

TwoClass 802units belonging to TransPennine Express passingNorthallertonin opposite directions
Overview
Franchise(s)	TransPennine Express 28 May 2023 – present
Main route(s)	North East England North West England Scotland Yorkshire & the Humber
Parent company	DfT OLR Holdings
Reporting mark	TP
Predecessor	TransPennine Express (2016–2023)
Other
Website	www.tpexpress.co.uk
System map

TransPennine Trains Limited,trading asTransPennine Express(TPE),is a Britishtrain operating companythat has operated passenger services in the TransPennine Express franchise area since May 2023. It runs regional andinter-cityrail services between the major cities and towns ofNorthern Englandand Scotland. The company, which is government-owned, was established following poor performance by the previous commercially-owned operator, also calledTransPennine 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'sTransPennine Express,suffered severe disruption of its services, which was largely attributable to events such as theCOVID-19pandemic and the2022–2023 United Kingdom railway strikes. On 11 May 2023, following numerous cancellations and service disruptions, theDepartment 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 byoperator 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 ofLeedsandManchester,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 byindustrial actionas the train drivers belonging to theAssociated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen(ASLEF)trade unionimplemented a ban onovertimeand a series of rolling strikes.That same month, the operator reinstated direct train services betweenCastlefordandYorkfor the first time in 50 years; this service change was facilitated by recent infrastructure improvement work undertaken as part of theTranspennine 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 betweenManchester station groupandLeeds;
• Anglo-Scottish Route, which consists of services on the West Coast Main Line;
• South Route, which includes services running on theHope Valley lineand theSouth Humberside Main Line.

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

Route	Freq.	Calling at
North Route
Liverpool Lime StreettoNewcastle	1tph	Lea Green,Newton-le-Willows Manchester Victoria Stalybridge Huddersfield Dewsbury,Leeds York Northallerton Darlington Durham Chester-le-Street
Manchester PiccadillytoHull Paragon	1tph	Huddersfield Deighton Mirfield Ravensthorpe Dewsbury Batley Morley Cottingley Leeds Selby Brough
Manchester AirporttoSaltburn	1tph	Manchester Piccadilly Manchester Oxford Road Manchester Victoria Huddersfield Dewsbury Leeds York Thirsk Northallerton Yarm Thornaby Middlesbrough Redcar Central
YorktoScarborough	1tph	Malton Seamer
Manchester PiccadillytoHuddersfield	1tph	Stalybridge Mossley Greenfield Marsden Slaithwaite
NewcastletoEdinburgh Waverley	7tpd	Morpeth Alnmouth Berwick-upon-Tweed Reston Dunbar East Linton(5tpd) 2 trains per day run betweenBerwick-upon-TweedandEdinburgh Waverley.
South Route
Liverpool Lime StreettoCleethorpes	1tph	Liverpool South Parkway Warrington Central Birchwood Irlam Urmston Manchester Oxford Road Manchester Piccadilly Stockport Sheffield Meadowhall Doncaster Scunthorpe Barnetby Habrough Grimsby Town
Anglo-Scottish Route
Manchester AirporttoGlasgow Central	1tp2h	Manchester Piccadilly Manchester Oxford Road Bolton Preston Lancaster Oxenholme Lake District Penrith North Lakes Carlisle Lockerbie Motherwell Alternates with services toEdinburgh Waverley,see below.
Manchester AirporttoEdinburgh Waverley	1tp2h	Manchester Piccadilly Manchester Oxford Road Bolton Preston Lancaster Oxenholme Lake District Penrith North Lakes Carlisle Lockerbie Haymarket Alternates with services toGlasgow Central,see above.
Liverpool Lime StreettoGlasgow Central	3tpd	St Helens Central Wigan North Western Preston Lancaster Oxenholme Lake District Carlisle Lockerbie Motherwell(1tpd)

Peak hours

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

• ANorthern Trainsservice betweenHuddersfieldandCastlefordwas transferred to TransPennine Express. This was converted to a peak hour extension of theManchester PiccadillytoHuddersfieldservice to extend toYorkcalling additionally atDeighton,Mirfield,Wakefield Kirkgate,andNormanton.This service runs 1 train every 2 hours at peak times.
• TheHull ParagontoManchester Piccadillyservice terminates atManchester Victoriainstead ofManchester Piccadillyand does not stop at stations betweenLeedsandHuddersfield.It also makes an additional stop atStalybridge.2 trains a day run toLiverpool Lime Streetcalling additionally atLea Green(2tpd) andNewton-le-Willows(1tpd). Only the first train makes a return trip to Hull Paragon calling at Lea Green.
• Additional hourly services are added betweenManchester PiccadillyandLeedsand some Manchester Piccadilly toHuddersfieldservices are extended toLeeds.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 StreettoNewcastleservices will sometimes not stop atStalybridgeorDewsburyduring peak times due to theManchester VictoriatoHull Paragon(Stalybridge) andManchester PiccadillytoLeeds(Dewsbury) services stopping at these stations instead. 1tpd in each direction will not stop atLea Greendue to the Liverpool Lime Street to Hull Paragon service calling there instead.

Routes

North Route
3:53 Edinburgh Waverley(St Andrew Sq.) 3:38 East Linton 3:30 Dunbar 3:15 Reston 3:10 Berwick-upon-Tweed 2:50 Alnmouth 2:34 Morpeth 2:29 Cramlington 2:14 Newcastle 2:07 Chester-le-Street 2:00 Durham 1:47 Darlington 2:45 Saltburn 2:35 Redcar Central 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 Paragon 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 0:06 East Didsbury 0:08 Gatley 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/Manchester Victoria.

South Route
3:02 Cleethorpes 2:49 Grimsby Town 2:33 Habrough 2:27 Barnetby 2:12 Scunthorpe 2:13 Althorpe 2:08 Crowle 1:59 Thorne South 1:55 Hatfield and Stainforth 1:50 Kirk Sandall 1:45 Doncaster 1:30 Rotherham Central 1:21 Meadowhall 1:11 Sheffield 1:10 Dore and Totley 0:56 Stockport 0:42 Manchester Piccadilly 0:41 Manchester Oxford Road 0:38 Urmston 0:35 Irlam 0:33 Birchwood 0:24 Warrington Central 0:23 Warrington West 0:10 Liverpool South Parkway 0:00 Liverpool Lime Street
Times shown are best times from Liverpool Lime Street.

Anglo-Scottish Route
3:19 Edinburgh Waverley(St Andrew Sq.) 3:14 Haymarket 3:29 Glasgow Central(St Enoch) 3:13 Motherwell 3:06 Carstairs 2:15 Lockerbie 1:55 Carlisle 1:46 Penrith 1:23 Oxenholme Lake District 1:09 Lancaster 0:51 Preston 0:31 Wigan North Western 0:15 St Helens Central 0:00 Liverpool Lime Street 0:22 Bolton 0:18 Manchester Oxford Road 0:14 Manchester Piccadilly 0:00 Manchester Airport
Times shown are best times from Liverpool Lime Street/Manchester Airport.

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, theClass 185multiple-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 supportdecarbonisation,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'sNova 3train sets, comprisingClass 68diesel locomotives hauling rakes ofMark 5Acarriages, 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 toCOVID-19,and noise complaints from neighbours of theScarboroughmaintenance 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 19Class 802bi-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

Family	Class	Image	Top speed		Number	Carriages	Routes operated	Built
			mph	km/h
	Diesel–hydraulic multiple units
Siemens Desiro	185		100	160	51	3	North Route Manchester Airport – Saltburn Manchester Piccadilly – York via Castleford Manchester Piccadilly – Huddersfield Manchester Piccadilly – Leeds Manchester Piccadilly/Manchester Victoria/Liverpool Lime Street – Hull Paragon York – Scarborough South Route Liverpool Lime Street/Manchester Airport – Cleethorpes	2005–06
	Bi-mode multiple units
Hitachi AT300	802Nova 1		125	200	19	5	North Route Liverpool Lime Street – Newcastle Newcastle – Edinburgh Waverley Leeds/York – Scarborough Anglo-Scottish Route Manchester Airport – Edinburgh Waverley via Preston	2017–19
	Electric multiple units
CAF Civity	397Nova 2		125	200	12	5	Anglo-Scottish Route Manchester Airport – Glasgow Central/Edinburgh Waverley via Preston Liverpool Lime Street - Glasgow Central via Preston	2017–19

Past fleet

Locomotive hauled stock
Family	Class	Image	Type	Top Speed		Qty.	Carriages	Routes Operated	Built	Withdrawn
				mph	km/h
Stadler UKLight	68		Diesel locomotive	100	160	14	5	North Route (Until 2023) Manchester Piccadilly – Scarborough York – Scarborough (Until July 2023) Liverpool Lime Street – Cleethorpes	2016–17	2023
CAF	Mark 5ANova 3		Coach	125	200	52			2017–18
			Driving Trailer			14

External links

• Official website