Trans Pennine
 

Do the class 185 units still work this route from Hull? I paid a visit to the new Paragon Interchange station in Hull this afternoon, and was surprised to see a class 170 in Platform 3 waiting to depart on a service to Manchester. Have we lost the newer sets already?

The 185's do still work to Hull but they are very far and few between

Thanks for that 222. Do you know why they have stopped working to Hull by any chance? A few months ago it seemed as if they worked every TP service. I travelled on one of them to Leeds in April and was quite impressed.

Transpennine Express didn't get enough 185s to run them on all of their routes. Although initially Manchester to Hull was the first route to see 185s used on it, they then reverted to using 158s on that route and then replaced them with former First Great Western 170s when the 158s were sent down to the South West to be upgraded to 159s.

I think the reason that 170s are used on the Manchester to Hull route is because it is the least crowded.

hstudent is correct in saying the DfT cut the order it was due to be 56units cut to 51. Now Transpennine Express want to lenghen the 185's from 3 to 4 carraiges. If this happens i'd hope the 5 units cut from the initial order would be ordered especially with the Scotland services due to begin soon.

Yeah, but it gets full between Leeds and Manchester. :confused:

What’s the news with the trains being used for the Manchester to Scotland routes? Originally it was said Transpennine Express would be using 185s and Virgin would transfer the Voyager trains used on that route to the Holyhead to London route.

Then Transpennine Express were warned that they won’t get enough 185s in time, they’d be too small and would also hold up Pendulino trains running from Scotland to London, so it was rumoured that First Great Western’s 180s would be transferred to that route.

From looking at the current timetable and my own personal experience of that service I think it could be altered slightly to ensure passengers are more evenly distributed between trains. The trains are timetabled to depart Manchester Piccadilly at exact 15 minute intervals. Yet the Hull train is timetabled to depart Huddersfield 20 minutes after the previous Newcastle service and 10 minutes before the following Middlesbrough service, which would suggest that 2 car 170 Hull trains gets a lot more passengers travelling between Huddersfield and Leeds than the following 3 car 185 Middlesbrough train.

Last year I attempted to catch a train between Leeds and Manchester at about 17:45 on a Friday evening but was unable to board a Manchester Airport train as it was full. The next Transpennine Express train to arrive was the service from Hull to Huddersfield, which left with empty seats, followed by the Liverpool train which I boarded. While it probably isn’t possible to send the Hull to Huddersfield train to Manchester Piccadilly due to congestion, it would be beneficial for the Hull to Huddersfield train to arrive at Leeds before the 17:53 Newcastle to Manchester Airport train meaning less seats and standing space on the Manchester Airport train is taken by people wanting Huddersfield.

I think that the 185's could do with being lenghtend upto six cars then this would free up some other units.

Also as iam ver impresed by the 185's ithnk that they are the wrong type of train for the length of routes they are working.

As DMU's arn't really built for such Long distance where as something like the 222 Medrians would suit most of the TPE routes namley Liverpool-Scarbough-York etc.

In my opinon thye should have gone for something Like a 223 which would be pretty simmler to a Mederian but built to a Six or Seven car formation and of FTPE's specification and prhaps one whole carrage of first class accomadation.

185's in my opinion should have gone to Northern for Express Services to Manchester and Blackpool From Liverpool Lime Street etc.

Also the persons from the DFT need to get from behind there desks and start seeing the railways in the real world.:)

These units are great for connecting local areas with cities. They are great accelerators and do well on routes like Manchester Airport connecting airline passengers with local and city areas. But I agree when it comes to long distance services, we need more intercity like services. I think it will be interesting to see how they do on the Scottish services.