TransPennine Express

[wirralbus]

RE: First Transpennine Express
185 Four cars would be nice to see as some jobs do get extremely busy , but a two car units you are asking for problems with overcrowding .

[WidnesRuncornBus]

RE: First Transpennine Express
I understand that the 2 car units would be used on Hull services or have 2 2 car units coupled together.

[wirralbus]

RE: First Transpennine Express
The Hull service already uses Class 170 , something to do with weight problems caused by the 185's being a bit on the heavy side.

The Class 170's are also not maintained alongside the 185's at Ardwick as they are looked after Bombardier at Crofton.

[childwallblues]

RE: First Transpennine Express
Electrification of the Windermere branch is under consideration by Network Rail at the Governments request.

[wirralbus]

RE: First Transpennine Express
Would a passing loop somewhere on the Windermere branch be operationally better for the line as well , rather than having just the one service in steam principle.

[507022]

RE: First Transpennine Express

(17/07/2013 14:41)wirralbus Wrote:  What is going to be the current state of affairs with regards the Windermere and Barrow in Furness branch services , considering the service is at present operated by Transpennine when the class 350's take over the main Manchester - Scotland service.

Will the through services be lost to a stub service terminating at Oxenholme and Lancaster respectively .

When the WCML was electrified in the mid 1970s, there was something like an hourly shuttle between Oxenholme and Windermere, albeit with power/trailer class 108 DMU and it worked well with regular connections from the south and north, Occasionally one was exended to/from Lancaster. There is no reason why a similar method of working would not work after the 350s take over. TPE don't have to work the service, maybe Northern Rail could take over the shuttle and possibly interwork with the Cumbrian coast line.

[wirralbus]

RE: First Transpennine Express
It seems that Transpennine and/or Northern will have to come up with something for the Windermere line .

What a lot of people would like these days is a seat on the train and not have to stand and that is what happens now people can get a seat on the section below Oxenholme towards Lancaster and Preston.

Heard that the Barrow service is going to operate as a portion working off some of the Blackpool North services whilst that is still operated with diesels but when that services turns over to electrics something else will have to be thought up .

[wirralbus]

RE: First Transpennine Express
Today was a day First Transpennine will glad to see the back , until about 1400 most services where disrupted in one way or another , due to a major lightning strike fried some fuses in the main signalling system for Manchester Piccadilly Station.

For a good part of the day there was delays and cancellations to services .

At one point some services where diverted into Manchester Victoria , but there just isnt the capacity there now since the MEN Arena was built for a large capacity terminating service.

[childwallblues]

RE: First Transpennine Express

(18/07/2013 22:26)WidnesRuncornBus Wrote:  I understand that the 2 car units would be used on Hull services or have 2 2 car units coupled together.

Having visited the Trans Pennine Express depot at Ardwick on Friday I asked the question about 2 and 4 car trains. Non starter as far as they are concerned.

[wirralbus]

RE: First Transpennine Express
The opportunity to extend the 185's to four cars was lost when the electrification was announced of the TPX lines .

Ardwick and York would have had to be remodeled to accomodate four car sets as most sidings double up at the moment to accomodate at least two units of three cars .

Trans Pennine has been a victim of its own success .

I know this may be controversial to say the least but to maintain capacity on services out of Leeds maybe one of the units crossing to Manchester should not stop at Huddersfield , when you look at the trains work it is not a prime commuter mover.