Leasing of rolling stock
 

I'm probably not alone in wandering how exactly train leasing works. There are a number of examples that seem a bit odd:

1. First Great Western are currently in possesion of some 180s, which apparently they will lose when some old trains have been refurbished.

2. The Manchester to Scotland route is currently run by Voyager trains, yet when Transpennine Express take over the route Virgin will apparently keep possesion of the Voyagers to use on the Holyhead to London route, rather than running Pendulinos with diesel engines attached.

3. But in a similar situation when Wales and Borders took over the Manchester/ Birmingham to Llandundno/Holyhead routes they took a number of 175s from First North Western to run those services. The 175s that were transferred had not been exclusively used on those routes and as a consequence it was under agreement that First North Western were allowed to loan them for some of their busier services, but that agreement expires when the Northern Rail franchisee began.

4. Arriva Trains Wales now run the Chester to Crewe service which used to be run by First North Western. In addition to the 175s they obtained, which orginally belonged to First North Western, they also obtained a couple of refurbished 150s from First North Western when they obtained that route. Despite the fact that the entire journey is just 25 minutes and First North Western had an excessively large number of 142s for their 'local' routes. It is now run by any of the following types of train: 150, 153, 156, 158, 175

5. Some of former Central Trains 158s have gone to Northern Rail, having previously been leased to TP Express. Central Trains are now in possession of some former TP Express 158s.

6. Class 350s are currently joinly leased to Central Trains and Silverlink.

Another strange observation which may or may not be a leasing issue is that Northern Rail seem to have put their name on almost every train they obtained when the franchisee started. Yet 323s have just had the First North Western name removed and remain in the First North Western livery. It seems to suggest that either they are going to be transferred to another company, or that another company may be looking at taking over one of the routes that they are currently used on?

I just hope that East Midlands Trains khave kept all the ex Trans Pennie 158's as these were in the best condition.

(10/11/2007) Last night the Last CENTRAL TRAINS 19.12 service from Hunts Cross to Liverpool Lime Street was worked by 158 773 very nice indeed.

Wish it was a 170 thoguh!!!