THE December 2023 timetable change saw the withdrawal of the Nova 3 fleet, made up of Class 68s and Mk.5A coaches, from active operation on trans-Pennine routes after just four years of service (see Headline News).
The somewhat controversial decision, announced in summer 2023 (RE330), demonstrates the change in direction of the trans-Pennine operation in recent years; it was brought back into full government control in May 2023 having previously been operated by FirstGroup since 2016. Services between Leeds and Manchester, which ran five times an hour back in 2017 and were described as ‘walk on’, have been reduced, and since the latest timetable change there are now gaps of up to 30 minutes between trains.
When No. 68027 Splendid hauled the 06.54 Liverpool Lime Street-Scarborough on August 24, 2019, it marked the return of regular locomotive-hauled timetabled services across the Pennines to the east coast resort for the first time since May 1987. When introduced, TPE had planned to operate its Nova 3 trains on virtually all services between Liverpool/Manchester Airport in the west and Scarborough/ Middlesborough in the east. However, this never came to fruition.
The previous period of locomotive-hauled trans-Pennine workings to and from Scarborough had begun in May 1982, and lasted for five years. These came about because services between Liverpool and York were extended to/from Scarborough. Initially such workings were rostered to be hauled by Class
