First TransPennine Express’ (FTPE) fleet of nine Class 170 Turbostar trains are to be cascaded to another operator at the end of the current franchise.
Leasing company Porterbrook has offered the Class 170 Turbostar units to Chiltern Railways when its contract with FTPE expires with the end of the franchise on April 1, 2015.
MPs have since raised concerns about capacity after FirstGroup confirmed that it is in talks with the Department for Transport (DfT) to extend the current term to February 2016 – the predicted start date of the new long-term franchise.
However the impact of losing the Class 170s could be offset by the introduction of 10 new four-car Class 350/4 Desiro trainsets from Siemens – the first of which arrived in Ardwick, Manchester, in December 2013 – freeing up some of the Class 185 diesel trains to operate on non-electrified sections of the network.
In a letter to Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin, chairman of the Commons Transport Committee Louise Ellman MP was critical of the DfT’s handling of the transfer, writing: “The TransPennine Express is a vital artery for the north of England. Services are already overcrowded and it makes no sense whatsoever to reduce the size of the company’s fleet.”
She added: “Given the current strong demand for rolling stock there is a risk that the trains cannot adequately be replaced, which could lead to reductions in service levels and a worse service for passengers.”
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Aren’t 185s too heavy for the line to Hull?
And also the Class 172/0’s that will be replaced by Class 378/3’s when the Gospel Oak-Barking line is electrified (25kv AC Overhead) the 172’s could be used to Abellio Greater Anglia’s Marks Tey-Sudbury line and/or London Midland Stourbridge Junction-Town line.
The hue and cry from some MPs in the commons over this was ridiculous – they are getting 40 vehicles to replace 18, a good deal in anyone’s book.
The 40 new electric vehicles are a fleet boost as part of a plan for badly needed increase in the capacity of the TPE network. This carefully arranged plan is now in tatters as it relies on retention of the 170s until full electrification of the route. Once again, the DfT has managed to grasp defeat from the jaws of victory. The plan was to enable 2 car services to increase to 4 and for 3 car units to double up to 6 cars on the central section where crowding is greatest.
The idea that the new 350 units ‘partially offset’ the upcoming loss is sophistry designed to cover up for the incompetence at the DfT, which has delayed the temporary management contract and thus mis-aligned the prospective new franchise with the rolling stock leasing contracts. Not good.
If, as Tony Miles of Modern Railways suggests, this is not an isolated instance the entire network could be in for a very chaotic time with a major rolling stock crisis.
How different things would be if the DfT had not wasted 50 million on Diesel Trains Ltd which was due to procure new vehicles and was scrapped: or if TPE had been allowed to order 4 car 185s as it initially demanded, rather than make do with 3 car units due to policy made by the DfT?
The plan to enable 2 car services to increase to 4 etc still happens. This is planned for the May timetable change, but the units are not lost to Chiltern till May 2015. Obviously, next year will see some shuffling about and it looks like Northern will lose out, with 158s needing to temporarily move to TPE (at least that seems to be idea that I’m reading about most)
The 185s can work to Hull, but are too heavy to run at the higher “SP” speeds like the 170s could. Hence they will trundle along at 70/75 rather than 90.
Essentially, the arrival of the 350s at TPE was seen as a means of launching a cascade to relieve the existing overcrowding on its routes, by strengthening existing trains & running additional ones. As far as I can see, if the 170s go south, what will operate the additional Newcastle – Liverpool service due to be introduced? losing 18 vehicles while gaining 40 sounds better than it really is. Translate that into sets & it becomes losing 9 sets while gaining 10. You can’t operate many extra trains with one set, can you?!! Taken alongside the DfT telling Northern that no vehicles were available to relieve the existing overcrowding on its services, it’s not surprising this is seen as a north/south issue (compare & contrast recent & planned capacity expansion in the SE!). Perhaps the solution would be to move the DfT to a northern city, where its employees could experience the delights of rush hour travel on the likes of 142s. I’m sure there would be a rapid revision of policy!
Noam Bleicher- the 350/4s are exclusively being used on a service that wasn’t part of the TPE franchise when First TPE said they needed 56 x 3 car trains to operate all the services, with an option to add more capacity at a later date. The previous government realised making TPE run the Scottish services without extra rolling stock wasn’t working and promised them 40 extra carriages, which were initially going to be in the form of 10 x 4 car DMUs by December 2012 but then became 10 x 4 car EMUs following the electrification announcement.
TPE’s May 2014 timetable won’t work without the 170s. They’d have 2 diagrams with no train to run it and other diagrams would really struggle for capacity, as is the case currently.