More carriages and faster trains for region

PASSENGERS using First TransPennine Express rail services are to benefit from extra capacity and faster trains as a result of a £41m Government investment.

The Department for Transport is providing funding enabling the train operators to buy an additional 80 carriages.

The First TransPennine Express carriages will be used on the Manchester to Scotland route following the electrification of the line between Manchester and the West Coast Main Line south of Wigan.

The new carriages will enable existing diesel rolling stock to be redeployed across the TransPennine franchise to increase capacity into Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield and Newcastle.
 
Combined with those from London Midland,  the new carriages will provide an additional 12,000 seats each day for commuters using services into London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Glasgow and Edinburgh. The carriages should enter service in 2013.

Rail minister Theresa Villiers said: “Increasing capacity on some of the busiest routes in the country is a key part of the major programme of rail capacity expansion we have promised to deliver.  It is a vital way of responding to passenger concerns about crowding and providing an important stimulus to economic growth.

“As rail travel becomes more popular operators must be able to meet growing demand and these new carriages will enable existing trains to be lengthened. These new trains will also run faster, which means extra train slots will come free, so that London Midland can fit more services into the timetable.”

Current London Midland services travel at a maximum speed of 100 mph, but the train operator will modify some of its existing fleet to run at 110 mph – the maximum speed of the new-build trains – creating faster peak and off-peak services into London Euston.

Not only will this mean quicker journey times – the extra speed will help shave up to 25 minutes off existing Crewe to London Euston off-peak services, for example – but the new timings will create space for extra train slots enabling London Midland to further boost capacity at peak times.

The agreement with First TransPennine Express includes the electrification of the depot at Ardwick, Manchester, where these trains will be maintained.

The TransPennine Express will be configured slightly differently to those for London Midland to meet the needs of long distance and airport passengers.