East Midlands Trains
East Midlands Trains (EMT) is a passenger train operating company operating in the United Kingdom. Based in Derby, it provides train services in the East Midlands and surrounding areas, chiefly in the counties of Lincolnshire, South Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Northamptonshire. The franchise, which began 11 November 2007, was formed through the amalgamation of the former Midland Mainline, which operated inter-city services from London to Yorkshire, and the eastern side of Central Trains operating companies.
Originally legally known as Stagecoach Midland Rail Limited the company was later renamed to East Midlands Trains Ltd. The parent company of East Midlands Trains is Stagecoach Group which also owns South West Trains and 49% of the Virgin Trains franchise.
History
Prior to the launch of the franchise, the Department for Transport undertook the task of splitting up the former routes of Central Trains: East Midlands Trains resulted from the letting of the East Midlands franchise.
East Midlands Trains began operating on the East Midlands Franchise from 11 November 2007. EMT has taken over all of the routes formerly operated by National Express Group's Midland Mainline and a few routes from Central Trains.
East Midlands Trains has been affected by the World recession and in March 2009 announced its intention to reduce its staff numbers, this followed a similar announcement at South West Trains earlier in the year.
Routes
East Midlands Trains initially divided its services between two sub-brands: Mainline InterCity services, and Connect urban and suburban services, which mainly came from the Central Trains franchise. However, from April 2008, East Midlands Trains dropped the "Mainline" and "Connect" branding in favour of "London" and "Local" services. The company also has four broad routes for the areas in which they operate, except for the high speed InterCity services which are all out of London.
EMT has promised better integration between London and Local services, together with increased punctuality and becoming more user friendly.
The new timetables indicate a reduction in off-peak departures at many smaller stations on London and Local routes, which has caused much concern in affected communities; Kettering for example has had its northbound services halved.
In several interviews, East Midlands Trains’ managing director Tim Shoveller indicated that services will be speeded up, not denying that some stations will lose their current high frequency of trains off peak. Various rail user groups have expressed dissatisfaction of various proposals, particularly those affecting smaller stations.[9] Indeed East Midlands Trains have been mentioned in Parliamentary sessions several time due to customer dissatisfaction.
On 25 November 2008, Peter Bone (MP for Wellingborough) asked if the Secretary of State for Transport supports the "In the Can" campaign[10], where sardines are sent to the Chief Executive to show dissatisfaction at perceived overcrowding. Helen Southworth (MP for Warrington South) also raised the overcrowding issue on the same day.
Despite public statements claiming improved services, peak time services from St Pancras to Wellingborough in the evening period of 1630 to 1800, have also been reduced from seven to three, and an additional stop has been added to the 1700, as well as reducing the train from eight carriages to five. Furthermore, there is a severely restricted northbound evening peak service from Luton stations with no services to Wellingborough, Kettering or stations north of Leicester (except a single service to Beeston, East Midlands Parkway and Nottingham) between 1651 and 1810.
Route clearance trials have been carried out with Class 222 on routes from Nottingham to Liverpool, Lincoln and Norwich although East Midlands Trains have no current plans to use these units on Liverpool or Norwich services.
Performance
Stagecoach plan to achieve a 90.3% (PPM) on London services and 87% (PPM) on Local services. Previously the Central Trains franchise had had difficulties with timekeeping due to the high number of potential clashes with late running other services en route and use of insufficient stock, causing long dwell times at stations due to slow unloading and loading. Figures released rated Central Trains' performance at 87.8% for the PPM (Public Performance Measure) over the first quarter of the financial year 2007/8. Latest figures released by the ORR rated performance over the last year (up to 31 December 2009) at 92.4% (MAA) and 90.9% (PPM) for the third quarter of the financial year 2009/10.
Rollingstock
East Midlands Trains inherited Midland Mainline’s InterCity 125 (HST) and Class 222 Meridian diesel-electric high-speed trains, along with some of the Sprinter diesel units (classes 153/156/158) formerly operated by Central Trains.
All Class 158 units are to be fully refurbished to the same standards as the South West Trains Class 158/159 fleet.
The High Speed Train/InterCity 125 sets are being refurbished over a sixty week period. The first set was shown off to the public at the Neville Hill Open Day in September. The refurbishment only features a retrim of carpets & the existing Intercity 70 seat design and new daldo side panels, wall ends and seat top hand grips being repainted. Unfortunately the LED reading lights in First Class carriages are being removed and the wheelchair accessible toilets are not being updated to meet the Disability Discrimination Act.
East Midlands Trains announced in March 2008 that it was to reform its Class 222 sets to prevent overcrowding. This will see the remaining 4-car Class 222 units receive an extra vehicle to become 5-car sets. This was accomplished by reducing one of the 8-car sets to a 5-car, with the remaining 8-car sets reduced to 7-cars. Extra capacity on its long distance routes is provided by running pairs of 5-car sets coupled together.