Operator: TransPennine Express
Headcode: 9M29
Route: YRK-LIV
Class: 1st Class
Seat: E23
Date: Monday 24th June 2024
Having arrived in York onboard a Grand Central from Peterborough (read about that here), leg 2 of my trip to the north-west of England would take me across the Pennines and into the north-west itself. This leg I would be taking the first of two journeys on this trip with TransPennie Express, or TPE, from the Yorkshire capital all the way to Liverpool. I’d be travelling in 1st Class for both my journeys with TPE to see the differences between their different offerings and to hopefully enjoy more relaxed journeys on my two day train marathon across England.
This journey with TPE would be onboard one of their ‘Nova 1s’, specifically 802219 which is a five-car Hitachi class 802. With bi-mode power, the service had started at Newcastle and ran on electric power from there to York, with the unit switching from electric to diesel power whilst waiting in platform 5 for passengers to alight and board. Whilst currently these services have to run on diesel power over the Pennines, the TransPennine Route Upgrade (TRU) is currently electrifying the route and these services will soon be able to run on electric power for a much greater proportion of the journey.
The journey across to Liverpool was scheduled to take 2hours and 12 minutes with six intermediate stops before we reached Liverpool’s Lime Street station. Unfortunately, we left York around five minutes behind schedule owing to a delay in boarding owing to a passenger in a wheelchair requiring assistance, something that shows a major flaw in these relatively new trains, a lack of level boarding! In fact the gap between the train and the platform in some places is so ridiculous that I struggle with it.
The delay to departure was further exasperated by just how busy the service was and how long it took everyone to board, however thankfully I was fairly far forward in the queue so was able to eject another passenger from my reserved seat, E23, whilst we were still stationary a York. Eventually departing at 1054, we began the run towards Leeds, and I was pleased to find that drinks were served almost immediately after departure, with the coffee quite decent for on a train and caffeine fix helping after an early start.
With the delayed start from York we unfortunately had quite a slow run into Leeds as we’d missed our path and ended up behind a stopping service between Micklefield and the West Yorkshire capital. On the approaches to Leeds from the north, you pass Neville Hill Train Maintenance Depot, former home of the East Coast’s Intercity 125 fleet and now home to LNER’s Intercity 225 fleet as well as a wide range of Northern’s units. 91119, the class 91 that wears the historic British Rail ‘Intercity’ colour scheme was resting outside the shed at Neville Hill awaiting its next duties as my service passed.
Our next stop after Leeds was Huddersfield, home of the famous station cats Felix (who passed away in 2023) and Bolt (who was subsequently promoted to Senior Pest Controller), however owing to TRU works on the direct route via Morley my train took a more circuitous route via Wakefield Kirkgate. This route took us passed both Cemex’s plant at Stourton and Freightliner’s Midland Road depot, with plenty of class 66s and class 70s stabled in the latter between duties.
Whilst the TPE website seemed to indicate that there was some sort of relatively substantial food offering of atleast the snack box variety, this never seemed to appear with just individual snacks such as packets of crisps or Tunnocks Caramel bars offered during the journey. As we arrived into Huddersfield 16 minutes late, it appeared to be TPE Central with services to Newcastle and Manchester Piccadilly along with my service to Liverpool all at the station at the same time.
The journey across the Pennines continued with some stunning scenery as we followed the Colne Valley towards Standedge Tunnel. The next stop on the journey was Stalybridge on the outskirts of Manchester, where I was 20 hours and 4 days too early for the weekly service to Stockport via Denton. After Stalybridge came Manchester Victoria, a station that’s much reduced from its original size but one that a lot of attention has been put into the heritage features in recent years. As we overtook a ‘looped’ Drax to Liverpool Bulk Terminal biomass service near Ordsall Lane, some more drinks were offered and we managed to have a relatively steady run for a few miles west.
Unfortunately, after the stop at Newton-le-Willows, we were delayed some more as a result of a service crossing the junction ahead of us. This is the reality of Britian’s crowded railway, as soon as there is a delay and a ‘path’ is missed, the delays snowball as services await margins across junctions or through stations. Our penultimate stop was at Lea Green and we were then non-stop to Liverpool Lime Street, passing Tuebrook yard where aggregates and biomass wagons were stabled. Gliding down the slope through the Lime Street tunnels, we eventually pulled into platform 3 at 1325, 24 minutes late.
Overall this was an ok journey with TPE from York to Liverpool. Their seats in 1st class on the class 802s are slightly better than the equivalents on LNER or GWR but the catering offering is definitely lacking on this route connecting some of England’s largest cities and TPE don’t have 1st class lounges anywhere on their network. The delay can pretty much all be put down to the extra time at York caused by the class 802s not having level boarding, so not great. I think an honest review of this journey would be to class it as ok, not good or great, so TPE definitely have some things they could work on.
Lounge 0*
Seat/Facilities 4*
Food 2*
Service 5*
Punctuality 3*
Overall Rating 14/25 (read about my rating system here!)
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