The intercity rail operator for the North and Scotland announced that the production of its first new trains, TransPennine Express (TPE), started. The new carriages will be built by Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) in Beasain, Spain and financed by Beacon Rail. They will be pulled by Class 68 locomotives which will also be owned by Beacon Rail, leased by Direct Rail Services and maintained by Alstom at its facilities at Longsight (Manchester) and Edge Hill (Liverpool).
The first of 66 body shells for 13-five carriage Mark 5A Coaches will enter into production with the first one set to be delivered in 2018. Each train will contain 287 seats and will operate on the company’s North route which runs between Liverpool, Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds, York and Scarborough as well as Newcastle. From 2019, the trains will also run to and from Middlesbrough.
Between 2018 and 2020, TPE will introduce three new train fleets, comprising of 13 five carriage Mark 5A coaches and 12 five carriage Class 397 ‘Civity’ electric trains, built by CAF and 19 five carriage Class 802 bi-mode trains which will be built in County Durham by Hitachi Rail Europe.
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