TranPennine introduces ‘Nova 2’ into service

SATURDAY, November 30 saw the third and final TransPennine Express (TPE) train fleet finally entering passenger service, when Class 397 ‘Nova 2’ set No. 397007 worked the 08.10 departure from Manchester Airport to Edinburgh.

An incident-packed journey saw the train finally arriving at Edinburgh significantly behind time because of an overhead wire fault south of Carlisle, which meant the set had to be held at Preston for almost an hour before the route was reopened.

TPE has transferred just four of the 10 Class 350 sets to West Midlands Trains for the timetable change, the remainder moving by the end of January.

TPE ‘Nova 2’ No. 397007 waits to form the first southbound passenger working, the delayed 12.11 from Edinburgh to Manchester Airport on November 30. The service was eventually terminated at Preston to allow the set to take up its next northbound path following the extensive disruption earlier in the day. TONY MILES

Discussions over the transfer of Liverpool to Nottingham services from EMR at the December 2021 timetable change are on-going.

Bids to run this service have been put forward by TPE and Northern, and with the new operator required to source rolling stock from that date, the 15 surplus Class 185 sets would be the ideal solution, but would see sets stored for more than a year and at risk of a bid by another operator.