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Extra carriages ‘within weeks’ on busy rail line
EXPRESS rail services between Sheffield and Manchester will have 50 per cent more seats by December to ease overcrowding.
East Midlands Trains, which operates one of two fast services between the cities each hour is receiving eight extra coaches.
The news means its service, which runs from Liverpool to Norwich and also serves Dronfield and Chesterfield, will have four-carriage trains instead of two on the majority of journeys Mondays to Fridays and some on Saturdays and Sundays.
The service currently suffers severe overcrowding.
First TransPennine Express operates the other hourly Sheffield to Manchester service. It uses three-carriage trains but one is first class.
The extra carriages means there will usually be six standard class carriages between Sheffield and Manchester each hour instead of four.
One passenger, who catches the East Midlands Trains service when commuting from Dronfield to Sheffield, said: “I have given up trying to catch one of the morning trains. In the evening, trains are sometimes so busy passengers have been left behind to wait for the next service.
“The extra carriages are great news.”
A Department for Transport said the carriages, which are coming from another company, were due to be delivered to East Midlands Trains earlier in the year.
A spokesman said: “There was a delay in new trains being manufactured for the other company before the carriages could be released to East Midlands Trains.”
An East Midlands Trains spokeswoman said: “We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of these additional trains which will help us to provide some much needed extra capacity.”
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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Comments
There are 5 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
stevee
Monday, October 17, 2011 at 09:42 PMthe problem with ticket barriers is that there are lots of different size and shape tickets these days. They would all have to be barcoded which means that every issuer would have to alter the way they print them. Plus most people have their tickets in wallets - ticket barriers are not the solution as they will slow genuine rail users down and make them miss connecting trains. I'd like to see an extra carriage on the Leeds and Huddersfied trians too so that we don't all have to stand like sardines and suffocate when the outgoing trains pick up at meadowhall
Charlie Farleigh
Sunday, October 16, 2011 at 04:17 PMTime for TPE to get some more seats to ease the chronic overcrowding on their services. Oh.... sorry, I forgot that TPE is run by Worstbus... their passengers can simply put up and shut up! Moronic serfs!
Los Blancos Galactico Rossoneri Mancunian
Sunday, October 16, 2011 at 12:16 PMGreat news! Now the solution over bridge & ticket barriers has to be resolved! Keep the bridge to everyone and put the ticket barriers at top of stairs to platforms and two on platforms 1 & 2.
freedom
Sunday, October 16, 2011 at 11:45 AMNever seen a fist class passenger, they should make the carriage a standard class one too!
ISeeEverything
Sunday, October 16, 2011 at 11:42 AMHas anyone ever seen a first class passenger on a TPE train?
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