UK: Invitations to negotiate have been issued to five potential manufacturers of new trains which will enable TransPennine Express to move away from largely diesel operation as its core Leeds – Manchester route is electrified.
‘We will be assessing the bids later this year’, reports Fleet, Safety & Service Delivery Director Paul Staples, who noted that even he is unable to identify which bid is which as the process continues. ‘We now have to move into a phase of the competition where it is code names for the bidders. Our new trains project managers have made it impossible to infer or imply any preferred rankings from the code names.’
The new fleet is being funded by the Department for Transport as part of the Transpennine Route Upgrade project.
There is a base requirement for 29 trains, with option to increase this to 55.
‘We will discuss with our funders and look at the business to assess whether more existing trains may be replaced, or might the business be expanded to cater for growth between 2029 and 2055’, Staples said.
In a departure from past processes the tender does not specify the number of vehicles, but calls for 195 m long units with specified parameters including for boarding times.
