Greybeard33
Established Member
Regarding Northern West, this Times article:
(possible paywall, sorry)
says:
Split from the May 2023 Changes thread as this is speculative.Passengers also face having some services cut further with the TransPennine Express said to be considering reducing the number of carriages on trains from six to three.
DfT appears hellbent on reducing rolling stock leasing costs nationally, where opportunities arise to return trains to the ROSCO at the end of an existing contract (e.g GWR 769s). I believe (some of?/all of?) TPE's lease contracts will terminate this year, at the end of the 2016 franchise period. The above Times story suggests that there may be a plan to operate 185s as single 3-car units on services currently booked as 6-car formations. This implies that TPE might intend to send some stock off lease. Not necessarily 185s - for example the Mk5a sets might be returned, with 185s taking over their workings.
Taking the speculation a stage further, Northern lease contracts mostly run until 2025, limiting the scope for savings from near term service cuts. Whereas TPE currently do not have enough traincrew with the competencies needed to operate their timetable reliably. Might DfT be hatching a plot for Northern to take over some, or some parts of, TPE services, where routes currently overlap such that Northern traincrew already have the requisite route knowledge? Northern stock and crew could be released for this by cutting heavily subsidised services elsewhere on the Northern network. That would enable more TPE stock to be withdrawn.
Thoughts?