TPE Seeking additional Bi-mode stock

[tbtc]

It was one of several ideas following the full first ownership of TPE as part of the vision and rebranding for ‘connecting the North’

These include:

Liverpool to Glasgow
Liverpool to Edinburgh (which is being split)
Redcar was to be extended to Saltburn (which is happening soon)
Manchester to Huddersfield local service extended to Wakefield Kirkgate
And some sort of connection from Manchester to Leicester via Derby.

The last two are the least likely extensions to happen and probably now will never happen due to pathing capacity and constraints, TPRU route closures including the Huddersfield upgrade and the fact franchising has ended and the DfT control the purse strings

Further evidence of this is that Derby, Leicester, Saltburn, Wakefield Kirkgate, Castleford and Nottingham are amongst the destinations available from manual destination blind lists and have been for many years.

Essentially improvements for every TPE line apart from the Cleethorpes branch, maybe they forgot about it again

In all seriousness, putting Leicester on the "map" seems pretty tokenistic to me

If the plan was to extend a Liverpool - Nottingham service through to Leicester (when the Norwich link is cut) - Sheffield to Nottingham takes as long as Sheffield to Leicester does (an hour), so even assuming you had good paths with not too long a reversal at Nottingham you'd be talking an hour and a half to do Sheffield - Nottingham - Leicester, quite the time penalty compared to the half hourly services from Sheffield to Leicester (maybe more if you want to stop at some of the "Ivanhoe" stations - I don't know whether the idea was to run this as a "fast" Nottingham to Leicester train or to replace the EMR stopper?)

I know that "...but people prefer direct trains", which is true, but at what cost? How much of a box ticking service do we run to try and provide all of these direct links?

Maybe the idea was to run TPE via Derby instead, which would mean no time penalty, but then Sheffield to Derby had four/hour (pre-Covid), so I don't know what purpose it would really be serving.

Can we not just focus on the boring everyday things (like running all planned services in the "core" and running doubled up services where possible) rather than the attention grabbing ambitions to go well beyond the regular boundaries?

 

[LowLevel]

Originally it was due to transfer but sadly the effects of Covid have put said transfer on a hiatus, and a decision is due to be made at a later date (2023 - the end of TPE’s original franchise/NRC agreement which has now been extended) wether to include the route in the TPE franchise/NRC or to keep it under EMR’s franchise/NRC. The main reason for this was that TPE were unable to facilitate train crew training in the expected timeframe.

Then it gets more complicated as EMR were then going to open a Liverpool depot for said route, and started recruitment but sadly once again the decision was made not to continue with said plan.

At the moment a transfer is not taking place and the route is to remain with EMR (keeping the 158 fleet that were due to leave for the time being) and a decision is once again due to be made once again by the DfT in the near future.

If it does transfer to TPE a proposed/rumoured future extension was Leicester.

The 158 retention/refurbishment is a work stream for delivery in 2023/2024 so I would assume nothing will change for some years after that.

 

[TheBigD]

Although not clear in my earlier post, I was specifically referring to the rumoured extension of the Liverpool-Nottingham service to Leicester as something I had not heard before. As @tbtc pointed out, pretty pointless with the journey times etc.

There was a Modern Railways article a couple of years ago which suggested a Leicester-Derby-Stoke-Crewe-Liverpool service, but I wasn't aware of other proposals/rumours for Leicester and TPE services.

 

[09ndodge]

Expression of interest now released https://bidstats.uk/tenders/2022/W11/770965949
Three different base order options proposed; 25 x 5 car Bi-modes, 18 x 5 car EMUs and 11 x 5 car Bi-Modes, or 12 x 5 of coaching stock with options for additional units and additional vehicles for 6/7 car formations.
Expected contract start date: April 2023.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Speculative thread:

TPE additional stock order - speculation

From https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/tpe-seeking-additional-bi-mode-stock.229236/page-5#post-5584274 Very interesting that LHCS is on the list. They must be much more satisfied with the Mk5s than people on here seem to think - or is there just an enthusiast quite high up in TPE who likes...

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