Northern Rail Loses Franchise to Arriva

[for fawkes sake]

"Widespread improvements to trains in the north of England and Scotland have been promised with the announcement of new contracts for two rail franchises.

The Northern Rail franchise is being awarded to Arriva Rail North Ltd, while TransPennine Express is going to First Trans Pennine Express Ltd.

The Department for Transport said the deals would see the introduction of 500 brand-new carriages.

The outdated and unpopular Pacer trains would also be phased out.

Trains would have room for 40,000 extra passengers at the busiest times, and more than 2,000 extra services a week would be delivered, the DfT said. The two train operators will oversee £1.2bn of investment into the railways, according to the announcement.

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said the plans would help deliver a "world class rail service" as part of the government's Northern Powerhouse project.

"As a one nation government we are committed to closing the economic gap between north and south," he said.

"This deal, and the joint management of the franchises, will bring the Northern Powerhouse to life."

I lifted this from the BBC Website but notice that the Pacer Trains still seem to be something of an afterthought.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35048842

[Stationario]

And it quotes:-

........more services between Middlesbrough and Newcastle, also benefiting Stockton;.......

No mention of Hartlepool, so will these go from Stockton via Stillington missing the town out?

[mickys19]

Yeah read that somewhere else, the feeling is the improved service will go via Stillington, also there is an increase of trains starting at Sunderland heading over to Hexham, Carlisle etc. It'll be as you were for Hartlepool, with a few refurb trains

Surprised we didn't see a Hartlepool to York stopper, albeit GC do this now but only 4/5 times a day. Or even a Hartlepool to Darlington direct.
But none of this benefits Boro does it...so we will never get a look in.

[not4me]

bit more information here - with an interesting paragraph:

"Half-hourly services between Newcastle and Carlisle from December 2017 with direct express trains going on to Middlesbrough. (A combination of existing and new services will create a half hourly service between Middlesbrough and Newcastle and some of these will be new express trains)."

http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/outdated-pacer-trains-teesside-replaced-10572790

[Inspector Knacker]

It appears to be four years in the future so if the pacers ( 40,000 rivets in loose formation) last the course till then, we should be well embedded in the Teesside 'embrace', a sort of poltical bear hug that grips us tightly because it can and doubtless will dictate to us our share of  the coming rail revolution... they'll probably turn the station into a Tumbleweed Junction onr rails and provide us with a nice little mini bus (it could be called the...er....  shuttle bus) to take those who need to catch a train through to Middlesbrough to catch one and tell us it's an improvement over what we had, in their world that is.
The 'despicables' will nod and and acquiesce avoiding eye contact and hope we swallow it.

[mk1]

I use the trains all the time and the fact the trains are pacers is not really an issue. I have had far more delays/breakdowns on the spanking new Main line trains than I have on pacers. If they could just make the trains more frequent/faster/longer then that would be a real improvement. Yes  'new' rolling stock would be more comfortable but 55 minutes standing on a crowded train from Newcastle on the weekend is no better than 55  minutes standing next to someone sitting a  nice new comfy seat.
The connection times at Thornaby for Hartlepool arrivals is a disgrace and  for the sake of a 5 minute adjustment on Middlesbrough departures Trans Pennine have made us wait 55 minutes for the following train. I wonder why none of our councillors saw fit to get involved and object?   I would not be surprised TP have made a donation to  the SCABs 'favourite charity'.
The real problem is the  position of Hartlepool on the  line because it just is not possible to connect Boro to Newcastle along the coast line without a 90 minute journey. If I lived in Boro I too would be looking for a way to bypass Hartlepool and cut the journey time by half at the very least. The best bet for Pool would be a  frequent  feeder service to Thornaby that properly connects.

[Inspector Knacker]

A frequent feeder service to Thornaby. ? Meaning my journey time to  Newcastlee almost doubles ? So it's back to the car then.

[testing times]

Isn't the real problem the lack of a rail bridge across the Tees from Middlesbrough to Hartlepool? It's ironic that Middlesbrough Station is within a stones throw of the Transporter Bridge. If Teesside City wants Hartlepool to be part of the great dream then it needs to show some desire to start connecting to it.

[Land Phil]

There is no desire, so there won't be any connecting up.

No reason why we can't justify having a service similar to the Tyne and Wear Metro, especially considering the hospital situation.
It would take the pressure off the A19, Teesside Park car parks, hospital car parks, make life easier for commuters, bring the transport interchange to life, make Hartlepool colleges more appealing to students across Teesside, make having a night out more viable, generate jobs etc. etc.

....but nobody in power wants us properly joined up do they plus it shows just what a folly Teesside Airport is to 99% of Hartlepudlians. 

[craig finton]

If the council had set the ground rules first i.e. we're not going to have a repeat of Cleveland County then maybe people would be more in favour of joining up with Teesside but the truth is that we've been signed up to this blind. They don't even know how it's going to work.

It hasn't taken people on this forum long to spot the possibility of a Stillington direct link between Newcastle and Middlesbrough so how come The Snail and the local Councillors haven't spotted it. The detail of the Arriva bid must make it clear if that is the intention but it looks like nobody has bothered to look even though there is an obvious impact on Hartlepool.

All the signs are that we have walked straight back into the Cleveland County, Middlesbrough-centric trap when all roads and rail links will head straight for Middlesbrough and bugger Hartlepool.

[mk1]

http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=119862

[steveL]

Taken from the Arriva Website:

"By 2019, a new fast Northern Connect service across Newcastle will link Carlisle and Hexham with Stockton and Middlesbrough. Local services will also be improved, with an all-day hourly service introduced between Bishop Auckland and Darlington. By 2019, Newcastle commuters will also benefit from a 27% increase in peak time capacity."

http://www.arrivarailnorth.org/your-service

This is quite interesting too:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TyneTees_Express

[crisstw]

sounds like we're f***ed then!

None of it makes sense:

Build houses in Hartlepool.
Close A&E
Build more houses in Hartlepool
Close the courts
Charge people to Park in Town Centre where other regional shopping centres don't
Envision Hartlepool as a tourist destination but allow the transport links to disappear, allow any tourist areas to fall into ruin
Build more houses in Hartlepool
waiver money for schools, transport, public projects
Build more houses in Hartlepool

Why would anyone want to live here if we have no Hospital. We are advertising the town as a Tourist attraction but even Seaham has more to offer. We have poor Transport links in & out of town as it is, yet the council are approving more & more housing projects. Who in their right mind would want to move to Hartlepool?  Anyone who lives here & can afford some of the executive housing that is being planned, why would they actually want to stay here ? ... Move to Wynyard or Stockton, there's more prospects in those places than Hartlepool.

[fred c]

The inconsequentiality of Transport within Hartlepool & The Tees Valley obviously hadn't dawned on Cwistopher  & his Clown Council, it was obvious to most people in Hartlepool that the town would left out in the cold in any major infrastructure developments.

The LabTor Mob were so enthusiastic about jumping on the "Proposed Greater Teeside" bandwagon they obviously discounted the glaring pitfalls of amalgamation....... either that or the usual suspects were looking at the Bigger Trough to stick their snouts in.

[Land Phil]

I am sure it was personal greed that lost us our hospital and a host of other things.

It is like a happy pig being fed sausages from it's own chopped up rear end.
Too stupid to realise that once it has had it's fill, it won't have a leg to stand on and won't be able to do anything about it.