New rail franchise deals Sheffield Chamber of Commerce Transport Forum comment

9th December 2015

Peter Kennan, Chair of Sheffield Chamber of Commerce Transport Forum, and Partner at Hawsons Chartered Accountants, said: -The announcement today that First Group has been awarded the new Trans-Pennine Express (TPE) franchise, which will run to 2023, means we should see some further improvements to Trans-Pennine rail services.

The commitment to build 220 new carriages by 2019 is particularly welcome, as any regular user of Sheffield to Manchester TPE services will know. Existing trains are often severely overcrowded. -A consequence of the announcement for Sheffield City Region is the doubling of seat capacity by 2019 of TPE services from Sheffield, Meadowhall and Doncaster to Manchester, Manchester Airport and in the other direction to Cleethorpes via Scunthorpe and Grimsby. -This is a big commitment from First Group to improving our Trans-Pennine train service from Sheffield to Manchester, with a doubling in seats through the use of six coach trains by 2019. This was a really important commitment but we must keep it in context. Glasgow to Edinburgh services are already every 15 minutes and are six coach trains. We have a long way to go to see anything like that level of service and it is disappointing, given the government's commitment to the Northern Powerhouse agenda, that we did not see any ramping up in train frequency. -The problem of course is that the Hope Valley line has no capacity at present and the Network Rail plans to upgrade it have now been referred to a public local enquiry, which could delay, postpone or lead to cancellation of any upgrade. This would be damaging to Sheffield's economic and business interests but the Chamber recognises the problem of development in the Peak National Park. We just hope matters can be resolved quickly. Sheffield Chamber of Commerce also warmly welcomed today's announcement of the award of the Northern Rail franchise to Arriva Trains. Peter Kennan said: -The franchise initially runs to 2025. As well as seeing the end of the detested Pacer trains, the franchise commitment by Arriva goes much further than many were expecting. The biggest commitment is the creation of the Northern Connect network. Sheffield benefits are likely to include: Brand new diesel trains operating at least 10 trains a day from Bradford to Leeds and then via Sheffield to Nottingham routed via Wakefield Westgate with an improved Leeds to Sheffield journey time of around 50 minutes. A much improved service using mostly new diesel trains from Sheffield to Hull. There are likely to be 15 services per day with at least 11 operated by the new trains. Sheffield to Lincoln will also be operated by new trains with an improved journey time 10 minutes faster than at present, and 10 trains per day. There will also be a 30-minute interval service from Sheffield to Retford via Worksop. The Sunday Lincoln to Sheffield service will become hourly with 11 trains. -This announcement helps deliver the improved fast city centre to city centre rail connections that the Chamber has been calling for, and the Leeds to Sheffield service improvement is particularly welcome, with its much faster journey times. -This will start to deliver some of the rail improvements that are needed to unlock the potential of the Northern Powerhouse and, coupled with the Trans-Pennine Express announcements - which improved capacity on Sheffield to Manchester services - at last we can think that Sheffield is to benefit from a serious improvement in its rail services, which can only be good for the economy and business.