SOUPING UP THE TRANS-PENNINE.

I admit to enjoying riding the Route of the War of the Roses, er, the York to Liverpool via Leeds and Manchester Trans-Pennine services, when I have the occasion to do so.

For the most part, that service has made use of various glorified (and sometimes not so glorified) railbuses and on occasion a locomotive-hauled train destined for Newcastle and beyond would show up.

Now, though, Midland commuters and the occasional pub-crawlers will have new, purpose-built coaching stock.

Hitachi commences work on the third fleet being built for TransPennine Express; totalling an extra 13 million extra seats per year. The new intercity trains will connect Northern England and Scotland with 19 new five carriage trains containing Japanese bullet train technology.

Production work has begun on two test trains in Japan which will arrive in the UK in 2018. The trains will be maintained at Hitachi’s newly built £80 million depot in Doncaster, home to 250 employees and four apprentices. Investment in the trains and new depot come alongside the Great North Rail Project, which will upgrade key parts of the route to enable better services.

I suppose it's uncharitable to suggest that putting Nystrom trucks and ribbed sides on a baggage car means the baggage car contains 1938 Hiawatha technology, but good suspensions and improvements in framing and body strength with less weight is a good thing, bullet train hype or not.  And Doncaster, historic home of Sir Nigel Gresley's steamers: Happy New Year.  Make the Great Northern Great Again, forsooth!

As well as connecting North of England and Scotland the fleet will run from Manchester and Liverpool, across the iconic Pennines to cities such as Leeds, York, Newcastle and Edinburgh.

The trains will provide 161 additional seats compared to existing trains and passengers will benefit from spacious carriages, extra legroom and additional luggage space. Each new train will offer fast, free Wi-Fi in both Standard and First Class as well as a complimentary on-board entertainment system, Exstream, allowing customers to stream the latest movies and TV shows during their journey.

Berry Sas, Hitachi Rail Europe Projects Director, said: “Millions of journeys along the popular transpennine route will be transformed once these pioneering intercity trains are introduced into service.”

As those trains will be under wires from Leeds as far as Edinburgh, they will have the capability to switch from diesel to electric drive en-route.  Nice to see that the FL9 dual-mode principle has grown up.