Midland Mainline - Midland Mainline Rolling Stock - B

Midland Mainline - B

Midland Mainline Rolling Stock

Midland Mainline inherited a fleet of High Speed Trains from British Rail. Enhancements were carried out to the power cars of the HSTs, most notably a revised lighting cluster.

In April 1997 Midland Mainline ordered 13 (later expanded to 17) Class 170 Turbostars to operate stopping services. Originally all were ordered as two-carriage sets before it was decided to increase 10 to three-carriage sets. The first entered service in May 1999 and allowed a new timetable with increased frequencies to be introduced with the Class 170s operating most of the stops south of Leicester, allowing the HSTs to be better used on the longer-distance services.

To cover for a shortage of HSTs, Midland Mainline hired two Fragonset Class 47 locomotives to top and tail a set of HSBC Rail Mark 2 carriages on a morning service from Nottingham to London St Pancras and evening return to Sheffield from February 2002. In October 2002 Midland Mainline was able to replace these, after leasing an additional five HST power cars and two sets of Mark 3 carriages that had been released by Virgin CrossCountry.

In February 2002 Midland Mainline ordered sixteen four-carriage and seven nine-carriage Class 222 Meridian trains based on Virgin CrossCountry's Class 220 Voyager, but with developments to improve passenger comfort and address some of the criticisms aimed at the Voyager. The first entered service in May 2004.

The four-carriage sets replaced the Class 170s, which were transferred to Central Trains, while the nine-carriage sets were ordered to operate a new service from London St Pancras to Leeds via Nottingham and the Erewash Valley Line. When the Strategic Rail Authority ruled that there was not enough demand for this service, the nine-carriage sets were left sitting idle until eventually they were put into use on the services between Nottingham/Sheffield and London St Pancras from July 2005, releasing one HST for hire to First Great Western while it refurbished its fleet and two other HSTs to GNER to allow that operator to run extra services to Leeds from May 2007.

As the nine-carriage Meridians were lightly loaded while the four-carriage sets were overcrowded, it was decided in 2006 to reduce all of the nine-carriage sets to eight carriages, the removed carriages then being used to extend seven of the four-carriage sets to five carriages.

A further reconfiguration of the Meridians took place in 2008, shortly after East Midlands Trains took over Midland Mainline's services, when six of the eight-carriage sets were reduced to seven carriages and the remaining set was reduced to five carriages, allowing all nine of the remaining four-carriage sets to be extended to five carriages.

To operate the Project Rio services to Manchester Piccadilly, 23 HST power cars and associated Mark 3 carriages were transferred from Virgin CrossCountry in May 2003. Whilst these were undergoing overhaul, a First Great Western HST was hired from May 2003 until February 2004. When Project Rio concluded in September 2004, some were transferred to First Great Western and GNER, while others went into store.

Midland Mainline Overview

Midland Mainline Franchise(s): Midland Main Line
28 April 1996 – 10 November 2007
Midland Mainline Main Region(s): East Midlands
Yorkshire and the Humber
Greater London
Midland Mainline Other Region(s): East of England
Midland Mainline Fleet Size: 23 Class 222 Meridian sets
28 HST power cars
Midland Mainline Stations Called At: 27 (7 operated)
Midland Mainline Parent Company: National Express
Midland Mainline Reporting Mark: ML
Midland Mainline Predecessor: InterCity
Midland Mainline Successor: East Midlands Trains