TPE favourite to take over Liverpool-Nottingham section

Government says of the Norwich-Liverpool route that “early in the new franchise the Liverpool-Nottingham section will transfer to another operator”.

That new operator is likely to be Trans-Pennine Express, which is understood to be taking over in 2021. No details have been released, although the Department for Transport said the split will “enable the two halves of the service to better meet the needs of customers”.

There will continue to be limited services via Stamford and Loughborough, while the Norwich-Derby trains will have free WiFi (unlike now) as well as at-seat power sockets and USB points (the existing ‘158s’ used on the route merely have the USB points).

Once the route is split, East Midlands Railway will extend its Norwich-Nottingham trains to Derby. This is to enhance regional connectivity as well as creating an additional train each hour between Nottingham and Derby. There will also be a regular hourly Sunday service.

The Crewe-Derby-Nottingham route will operate with increased capacity, as the single-car ‘153s’ currently used will be replaced. Most Crewe-Derby trains will be extended to Nottingham, and there will be a later evening service.

EMR will introduce a new Nottingham-Grimsby service, with a limited extension to Cleethorpes. There will be two trains per hour running between Nottingham and Newark Castle for a longer period each day, while a Sunday service will operate all-year-round between Lincoln and Grimsby.

On the Worksop line from Nottingham there will be a later evening service on weekdays, while a new Sunday service will be introduced.

For the Skegness route there will be additional peak services between Nottingham and Grantham, as well as earlier morning and later evening services between Nottingham and Boston.

An hourly Peterborough-Lincoln-Doncaster service will be introduced from December 2021, while a new Sunday service will run between Lincoln and Doncaster.

The Barton-on-Humber to Cleethorpes route will transfer to EMR from Northern. With its transfer will be an enhanced Sunday service.

The Lincoln-St Pancras International service will be doubled to 2tph, and this will use the new bi-modes from 2022.

EMR will introduce a dedicated Corby-St Pancras International express from December 2020, operated by 12-car trains in the peaks.

The existing service operated by East Midlands Trains on the same route will be doubled to two trains per hour.