Contributing Writer rail@bauermedia.co.uk
TRANSPENNINE Express was set to end its use of Class 68s and its new CAF Mk 5 coaches on December 9 (after this issue of RAIL went to press), with the coaches facing an uncertain future.
Reports suggest that the lease on the vehicles, including the locomotives, which are hired from Direct Rail Services, will continue until May despite the vehicles not being used.
The 13 five-car sets (including Driving Trailers) will not be replaced. TPE’s fleet of Class 185 diesel units will therefore be worked harder to cover for the shortfall, with short-formed trains of three cars instead of five and six cars on some routes inevitable.
The operation of Class 68s on the Pennine route has been a costly and difficult one.
Initially, the coaches were delayed into traffic, and then the COVID pandemic affected staff training on the coaches and driver training on the Class 68s.
Complaints from the residents of Scarborough over the noise of the idling Class 68s (they are notoriously noisy, as this was the only way to get their Caterpillar engines to meet exhaust emission regulations) led TPE to look at taking the locomotives off the Scarborough route.
Training on drivers and crews for them to work to Cleethorpes via the Hope Valley was begun, but then the locomotives’ one turn a day was scrapped in September.
The initial plan had been for 11 of the 13 sets of Mk 5s, which were built in 2017-18, to be used each day between Liverpool Lime Street and Scarborough and Saltburn via Manchester, Huddersfield,
