Northern & TPE franchises extended to co-terminate ….
On Friday, Philip Hammond, Secretary of State for Transport released a statement on the revised franchising timetable.
It shows the Northern and TPE franchises extended to April 2014 with a view to considering prior to then whether to combine them or to split the services in some other way. Given the upcoming electrification programme, this is not surprising.
Could we see the Airport to Scotland services handed over to Scotrail, sponsored by the Scottish Executive and Manchester Airport and run with brand-new class 380s? It would be a great way to promote both Manchester Airport and also Scotland as a destination, as well as promoting Manchester Airport for use by the Scots rather than them having to slog down to congested Heathrow for long-haul flights they can’t get out of Scotland.
I had my first ride on the 380s in June. They are superb units – I was surprised how much better they were than the 350s. Delightful. We’d probably need 380/2s, configured with appropriate seats for longer distance services, and with the ability to add weekend strengthening from the internal Scottish 380 fleet.
What happens to the current TPE Airport to Blackpool, Barrow and Windermere services once the Deansgate to WCML gap is electrified remains to be seen.
6 comments 
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August 7th, 2011 at 10:51 am
The best outcome as I see it would be if the Trans-Pennine Express franchise is merged with Northern and then split into North West and North East with the North West part run by the people who currently run Trans-Pennine Express based in Manchester.
August 7th, 2011 at 1:58 pm
One proposed recommendation I’ve heard is for North TPE to be merged in to East Coast and for South TPE to go to EMT. I’m not sure what would happen to the 185s in that instance. Maybe let East Coast have them all to allow all services on North TPE to be run in 6 car formation and get new/cascaded units for the other routes.
How the fleet works out for the next Northern franchise will be interesting considering Metro have just sold their rolling stock with part of the agreement for the sale is for it to remain in the area until the end of the franchise.
August 16th, 2011 at 12:32 am
What looks like happening is London Midland and the Airport-Scotland services merged into the WCML franchise, Northern and TPE merged and then resplit into a east and a west of Pennines franchises.
Then a change to legislation to allow PTE mini-tocs, similar to how buses are run in London all the extra routes and services the PTE wants in its area over a 10 year or so period will be awarded to a single bidder (either one of the existing franchises in the area or an external toc) in a bid competition rather than on a route by route contract signed individually as operated today. The PTE would recieve part of the Dft’s existing national rural/commuter subsidy budget to commision the extra services with.
September 14th, 2011 at 4:34 pm
A revised 350 model has been confirmed for Manchester to Scotland, as part of a combined order with London Midland. The new 350s for Manchester to Scotland should be 110mph capable and an interior to suit the long distance nature of the services.
http://www.londonmidland.com/news/latest-news/new-rolling-stock-for-london-midland-and-for-first-transpennine-express/
As the Thameslink cascade is so far behind schedule let’s hope that there’s a follow on order for some of the newly electrified routes rather than the wires being put up with no electric units available to run under them.
August 15th, 2012 at 7:31 am
Wasn’t sure where to post this, but I see Virgin have lost the WCML franchise and First Group have it now….
http://www.firstgroup.com/corporate/our_company/intercity_west_coast.php
August 16th, 2012 at 7:58 pm
Hopefully they revise the peak time Manchester-London services to free up paths for local trains in the Stockport area.