TransPennine Express (TPE) has announced a £230 million deal for 25 new trains.
The new fleet, which will be maintained by Alstom at Longsight depot, will consist of 12 five-car Civity EMUs from CAF – financed by Eversholt Rail – and 13 five-car loco-hauled intercity trains.
The announcement follows an order placed earlier this year with Hitachi for 19 bi-mode train sets. Both fleets of new trains are due to be delivered between 2018 and 2019.
TPE’s managing director Leo Goodwin said: “This is great news for our customers and we are delighted to have concluded the deals that will bring much needed and much wanted extra carriages across our network.
“This will enable us to transform the customer experience over the life of our franchise and our three new train fleets will form a key part of this improvement.
“Whether travelling to work, for business or leisure, our services are going to offer more seats, improved connectivity and a higher standard of comfort.
“The on-board experience will be second to none and we will provide customers with a real alternative to the car and congested road network.”
The 12 new electric trains being built by CAF, which is already contracted to supply 98 trains for the neighbouring Northern franchise, will operate services connecting Manchester and Liverpool with Glasgow and Edinburgh.
In addition to the new CAF trains and carriages, Beacon Rail-owned Class 68 locomotives will be leased from Direct Rail Services to operate intercity services between Liverpool and Newcastle.
More to follow
All other train companies are getting brand new trains except some train companies including Arriva Trains Wales and Abellio Greater Anglia are having to stick to older rubbish rolling stocks which I think it’s unfair because London & the Southeast, Southern England, Northern England (includes Greater Manchester, Merseyside & Liverpool, Cumbria and most of Yorkshire), some parts of Scotland and some parts of the West Midlands (Birmingham & the Cotswolds) and the East Midlands (Nottingham, Derby & Lincoln) are getting new trains being built and most parts of Wales & some parts of Eastern England (Essex, Norwich, Ipswich & Colchester) are to keep the older trains but why can’t train manufacturers such as CAF, Siemens, Bombardier and Hitachi could start building brand new trains for Eastern England (including Essex) that most passengers in Essex are suffering with overcrowded carriages travelling to/from London Liverpool St with all of the seats being full up and standing up in full up carriages is a headache as new trains can cope with overcrowding rush hour commuters including the Class 700’s that are being built for GTR Thameslink.
Money.
Yes it’s all about the money but it’s also about the profit and franchising. Ffs.
Profit *is* money. And that’s the only reason why a private company would tender for a franchise.
Ok. That’s fine.
It’s that the best you come with by saying “Money”. I’m sorry but what a useless comment you said.
More useful than most other comments.
Just shut up. Don’t judge me ok. Fool.
Every region has overcrowded trains, this is nothing new. How about waiting until the next franchise and you’ll get your new trains, it will be announced soon as it starts on 16 October
Ok fair point.
I know what you mean though. It seams like the companies with all the new trains are getting new trains and the companies that could really do with an upgrade just get old hand me downs from 30 years ago.
You cannot really class Northern as one of the…”companies with all the new trains that are getting new trains…” Northern had to put up with decrepit 142 Pacers and 150 Sprinters for years whilst other areas were getting newer DMUs, such as Turbostars, Desiros etc.
But then on the other hand, Regional Railways was receiving the brand-new Sprinters in the 80s with the Southern region generally having to make do with outdated slam-door stock until well into the 00s. That’s the way it goes.
Agreed. Undoubtedly, every train fleet cannot be replaced at the same time, so some areas of the country are always going to feel left behind, when they see brand-new trains being delivered elsewhere.
,
Just out of interest why are TPE going for loco-hauled trains when most passenger services these days are multiple units.