RAIL services through Warrington will benefit following the announcement by the Department of Transport that 40 new carriages are to bought for the Transpennine Express next year.
Warrington South MP David Mowat says the new carriages would be used on the Manchester to Scotland route, freeing up existing diesel rolling stock to be redeployed to increase capacity into Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool, including services calling at Warrington Central.
He said: “This is excellent news for commuters and rail users in Warrington. This investment by the Government in new carriages will boost capacity and reduce crowding.
“As people in Warrington already know, the Transpennine route is one of the busiest lines in the country, so this will provide real benefits to passengers.”
Rail Minister, Theresa Villiers said: “This is great news for passengers who will get faster, longer trains and more seats.
“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, creating extra train slots.
“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.”
Pictured: Mr Mowat, third left, with Theresa Villiers, Mayor Mike Biggin, council leader Terry O’Neill, chief executive Diana Terris and others at the opening of the re-vamped Central Station last year.
4 Comments
Surely we can not belive this will benifit Warrngton for too long as when the Northern Hub is completed it is my understanding that Transpenine Express trains will be diverted throught Newton the Willows to Liverpool thereby missing Warrington completely with the only express train per hour being the predominantly two carrage central trains (Liverpool to Norwich)
NO IT WONT!!
These ordered trains are to take over the FTPE routes to Glasgow / Edinburgh which will run on the newly overhead electrified lines through Eccles and Bolton. The diesel units on them will filter down in the short term to other FTPE routes such as Liverpool – Scarborough through Warrington (although Manchester – Newcastle / Hull have the greater capacity issues and therefore likely to get the bulk of them), however they will however also be replaced when Liverpool – Manchester via Newton is electrified and Manchester – Leeds. As a result of that latter electrification, FTPE services currently through Central will divert to via Newton to be replaced by further electric units and the Warrington services will be replaced by 30 year old Diesel Sprinter 2 car services currrently provided by Northern to the Airport. They within their current frnachise have no plans to replace the same but have recently taken some old stock from elshewere on the network. Accordinlgy they may increase on some key services to 4 car.
As far as I am aware EMT have no plans to divert to the Chat Moss route nor are they likley to take additional carriages from FTPE. The spare FTPE carriages post electrification will probbaly be re-distributed around the network as they are relatively new.
So in summary this will make the service through Central worse overall in th elong run and may be just maybe better for a few months before transferring them away.
As per the previous comment, these new trains will barely benefit Warrington, which will loose out over the next few years if the Northern Hub happens.
However, the previous commenter may be pleased to hear that more weekday Norwich services are now 4 carriages long (recently refurbished) since the December 2011 timetable, and that it has been operated by East Midlands Trains for the past four years.
i dont use EMT anymore after the debacle of the first 2 years of that franchise, but i still do see them in Mcr and they arent always 4 car at peak. Even when they are they are rammed. They need to be 6 at peak hours but EMT will never do that