TransPennine Express and Angel Trains have agreed an order with Hitachi for 19 new bi-mode trains ahead of the launch of the new franchise tomorrow.
Announcing the contract award, TransPennine said the majority of the 95 carriages will be built at Hitachi’s Newton Aycliffe site in County Durham.
The new trains will be delivered on to the TransPennine route by December 2019.
As well as supplying the new vehicles, Hitachi will maintain and service the fleet from Doncaster Carr and Craigentinny.
The new five-car trains are based on Hitachi’s AT300 platform – the same model Hitachi is supplying for the East Coast Main Line and Great Western Main Line for the Intercity Express Programme (IEP).
TransPennine Express managing director designate Leo Goodwin said: “The signing of this contract is the first major step for the new franchise.
“These brand new state of the art Hitachi trains will lead to significant improvements in seating, capacity and provide a more reliable and efficient service.”
TransPennine Express said it will introduce 44 new trains during the course of the new franchise deal and that it expects to finalise an order for the extra 25 soon.
I really hope these Hitachi trains are comfortable, everybody seems to be queueing up to buy them! … closest I’ve experienced is the Javelin of course, and the one question I’d ask there is about the noise levels: I felt the Javelin was pretty noisy inside compared to some other trains (e.g. modern Siemens or Bombardier EMUs). That could just be a result of running at highish speeds through tunnels though, so a bit of an unfair comparison, but still, before any passengers have travelled on the new trains and given reactions, more and more are being ordered! …
Would it be classified as Class 802/3.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_802
As the Hitachi Class 800 and Class 801 IEP’s are to be built for Great Western Railway and Virgin Trains East Coast and Class 802 for Great Western Railway and First Hull Trains.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_800
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_801
Not to mention that CAF are to build the new Class 195’s DMU and Class 331’s EMU that are to be built for Arriva Northern Trains (Northern Trains as its now called) as well for Transpennine Express (TPE) as it was called as First Transpennine Express (FTPE) but First Group have extended the franchise to 2023/2024 with Arriva who have won the North Rail franchise that will expire in 2025/2026.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_331
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_195
TransPennine Express is not operating the CAF units.
Thanks for re-clarifying. Northern Trains instead are getting the new trains by CAF. Whilst Transpennine Express are getting new trains from Hitachi.
I have to say the liveries look beautiful, and it’s good to see TPE thinking about bringing in some quicker services to their routes. Leeds to Manchester in 1 hour is far too long – it needs to be 30 minutes minimum for me, as they’re two of the biggest and most economically powerful cities in the North and they’re very close by. HS3 is one option, but if there is capacity on the trans-pennine route then there could just as easily be an upgrade of the signalling or other infrastructure to allow new trains like these to run as quicker speeds. The question is – why are the TOCs in the UK so fixated on bi-mode trains? No other country is, and we should be really be only looking at EMU trains.