TRANSPENNINE EXPRESS will continue to lease Class 68s and Nova 3 Mk.5A fleet until May 2024, despite having no plans to use them beyond December 2023 – while also cutting the number of services the company is operating.
TPE was taken back into public control on May 28, 2023, and a subsequent deep dive into the operator has found various ways to improve performance. This included, initially, removing the locomotive-hauled trains from the southern Pennine route to Cleethorpes, with a subsequent decision made that the trains should be entirely removed from the TPE network. This decision was based on the poor availability of the trains since their introduction, combined with issues surrounding driver training.
Although the operator has 13 rakes of five Mk.5A coaches within its Nova 3 fleet, TPE only ever has a maximum of six sets available, but there can often be only two sets in use per day.
The trains (66 coaches and 14 Class 68s) currently cost £37 million per year to lease, and TPE managing director Chris Jackson told Railways Illustrated at a media briefing in Manchester on October 18 that the trains would be stored at various locations until their lease expires.
He said that TPE is “determining their future use,” but reiterated that the plan was for them to leave the operator. Already, four of the Class 68 locomotives – 68019/020/022/031 – have returned to the XHTP pool with Direct Rail Services from where theywere sub-leased, these locomotive
