On 11 September, transport secretary Heidi Alexander announced a £1bn deal to introduce battery powered trains on TransPennine Express (TPE) services. The trains will run on several TPE routes, including its Teesside one.
Batteries included
The new units will be made by Alstom, and will be known as Adessia Stream trains. They’ll be electrical and battery hybrids, a type known as Battery Electric Multiple Units (BEMUs). The BEMUs will be capable of drawing electrical power from overhead line equipment (OHLE), but will be able to run on batteries on non-electrified lines. The trains will facilitate level boarding on all doors, a transformative improvement in accessibility.
Heading for the coast
The BEMUs will serve three locations on the east coast of Yorkshire: Hull, Scarborough and, importantly for Teessiders, Saltburn. The hybrid technology is essential on these lines, because none of them are electrified. The map below shows the southern portion of the TPE network, and the energy type which will supply each route when the BEMUs start running.
But there’s a catch
Alstom will start manufacturing the new trains in 2028, but they won’t start running until December 2034. Why is this? Richard Bowker, from rail journal Green Signals, asked TPE Managing Director Chris Jackson to explain. Chris said that he’s still got the scars from premature new train deployments of the past. And there’s a reminder nearby of how things can go awry when you rush the job. A stone’s throw from Alstom’s Derby factory, where the new TPE trains will be made, the catastrophic rollout of new Hitachi Aurora trains on East Midlands Railway is still unfolding. Alstom and TPE won’t want a repeat of that. Green Signals’ YouTube feature on the new TPE BEMUs is worth a watch.
Why choose hybrid trains?
Chris Jackson was asked why TPE had chosen hybrid electric and battery technology. Chris replied that the company was embracing technology that already exists. He claimed that Alstom’s BEMUs “are tried and tested in Germany, and tried and tested in Ireland”. This statement is only partly true. Alstom’s German BEMUs entered service in February 2026. But their introduction in Ireland has been delayed due to battery problems, no less. The Irish trains aren’t expected to start running until mid-2027.
How will this work?
Taking the Saltburn to Manchester Airport service as an example, Saltburn will have batteries installed beneath the track at both platforms. The trains will charge their batteries in between services. When the trains reach Northallerton, they’ll raise their pantographs to pick up the electricity supply from the OHLE, then switch off their batteries. The reverse process will happen in the other direction. The return journey will include running 52 miles under battery power.
Range anxiety? No, we’ll be okay
Similarly to Saltburn, batteries will be installed adjacent to selected platforms at Scarborough and Hull railway stations. Trains will run on battery power between Scarborough and York. Hull’s BEMUs will run on batteries between there and Micklefield. Both of these runs are substantially longer than the Saltburn/Northallerton section.
But the battery range of the BEMUs will be 90 miles, and all of these journeys will be well within their capabilities.
Short straw
But it’s bad news for travellers on TPE’s most southerly route, between Liverpool and Cleethorpes. The line is too expensive to electrify, and beyond the range of present-day battery technology. Passengers are going to be stuck with diesel trains for a long time.
Faster trains
The BEMUs will be capable of 110 mph on electrified track, slightly faster than the 100 mph top speed of the Class 185 diesel trains which they’ll replace. However, they’ll only be able to reach 100 mph under battery power.
Faster services
By 2032, thanks to the TransPennine Route Upgrade, all of TPE’s services will be 14 minutes quicker than in 2026. This will be due to faster trains, track enhancements, and electrification of the route between Manchester and York. But TPE and Network rail could do a lot better here. There’s no news about line speed improvements on the painfully slow line between Saltburn and Northallerton. With some decent investment, civil engineers would be able to shave another 14 minutes off the overall journey. The section between Eaglescliffe and Northallerton is already due for an upgrade to permit the transport of larger freight containers. This upgrade has been promised for 10 years, but it keeps getting kicked into the long grass.
Change at Redcar
Since December 2024, TPE trains have stopped serving Saltburn. Services have been cut back to Redcar Central due to staff rostering issues. Hopefully TPE will be able to restore the Saltburn services before the BEMUs start running in December 2034. In this photo, taken on 15 September 2026, a Class 185 heads away from the camera at Thornaby, en route from Manchester Airport to Redcar Central. Passengers for Saltburn will need to change trains at Redcar.
Short platforms
The BEMUs will be five-car units, an improvement on the three-car units they will replace. However, platforms at Redcar and Yarm aren’t long enough to accommodate five-car trains. Hopefully a fix will be found before 2032.
Double-edged sword
But the introduction of BEMUs on TPE services will almost certainly sound the death-knell of plans to electrify train routes in Teesside. What would be the point? For example, Northern Rail could install batteries at Bishop Auckland, then run trains between there and Saltburn entirely under battery power.
We apologise for your delay
Teesside needs a strategy for this sort of ambition, and fortunately there’s one on the way. The Department for Transport (DfT) was due to produce a Rolling Stock and Infrastructure Strategy in the summer, as part of progress towards creating Great British Railways (GBR). But the Railways Bill has been delayed in Parliament, so GBR is running late, and the rolling stock strategy is behind schedule too. Metaphor alert. When it’s eventually published, will the strategy be worth the paper it’s printed on? Given the DfT’s mediocre record on railway matters, that’s an even money bet. Still, we’ve got the Adessia Stream BEMUs to look forward to. Some time in the next decade.
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