Alstom signs over €1.2bn of contracts for 29 TransPennine battery trains

Alstom said on September 11, 2026 that it has signed contracts worth more than €1.2 billion (about $1.39 billion) with TransPennine Express for 29 five-car battery-electric trains, to be built at its Derby Litchurch Lane Works and delivered from 2032, along with their maintenance, depot provision and charging infrastructure. The bullet points of Alstom's release say the contracts include a rolling stock order worth approximately €930 million (about $1.07 billion) and maintenance agreements worth around €230 million (about $266 million); the release's body puts the total at €1.2 billion flat, and calls the fleet Britain's first mainline battery-electric trains. TransPennine Express's own release and the Department for Transport's announcement both price the deal at £1 billion; at the European Central Bank reference rate for September 14, 2026, which every conversion in this article uses, €1.2 billion is about £1.03 billion.

The trains are the first UK deployment of Alstom's Adessia Stream platform, which the release describes as the next evolution of its Aventra design after a three-year research programme and a £35 million (about $47 million) investment. Alstom says each 121-metre unit will run at up to 110 mph with around 300 seats, including a First Class area, and will offer level boarding at every door. The DfT release says the trains will be bought by rolling stock investor Rock Rail and leased to TransPennine Express, and lists the services they will work: Liverpool Lime Street to Scarborough, Manchester Airport to Saltburn, and Manchester Piccadilly to Hull. Per Alstom, they will replace part of TransPennine's existing Class 185 fleet. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander is quoted in the release saying passengers "can wave goodbye to overcrowded, delayed diesel trains."

Charging at the end of the line

Alstom's release says the batteries provide emission-free operation on non-electrified sections of railway, and that Alstom itself will install charging infrastructure at Hull, Scarborough and Saltburn, "allowing the Adessia fleet to recharge efficiently during normal operations." Those three stations are the far end of each of the three routes the DfT lists, opposite Liverpool and Manchester. The Network Rail release on the same order says the Transpennine Route Upgrade is delivering an electric railway between York and Manchester, that 25% of the 70-mile route is now electrified, and that the £11 billion programme will deliver the full electrification of the line; the three charging stations lie beyond that stretch.

Alstom says the installation will be a UK first on the mainline network and follows a similar deployment in Ireland. Its August 11, 2023 release on that project describes the design: a medium-voltage connection to the network operator ESB, a traction substation with an energy storage element, and a controlled current fed to trains stabled on the platforms at Drogheda Station, recharging their batteries through an overhead rigid catenary and the trains' pantographs during service turnaround; the release puts the installation on two platforms and one siding. That release said the facility would be installed by the end of 2024 for battery trains entering service in 2025, ahead of planned electrification of the line; the September 2026 release calls the Irish deployment successful.

None of the four documents on the order (Alstom's, TransPennine Express's, the DfT's, and Network Rail's) gives the battery capacity, the range on battery power, or the charging power at the three sites. Alstom's Adessia product page claims "a range of up to 1,000 km without charging" for its hydrogen and battery commuter solutions generally, with no figure attached to the TransPennine trains.

Four releases, four sets of numbers

The same-day documents agree on 29 trains and disagree on most of the rest. Alstom says the fleet will be delivered from 2032; TransPennine Express says full delivery by winter 2032 and passenger services no later than winter 2034; the DfT says the trains enter service from winter 2034; Network Rail says winter 2034.

Alstom counts more than 350 jobs in Derby, over 5,500 roles in its UK supply chain, at least 36 apprentices and 36 T Level students, and at least £360 million (about $486 million) in spending with British suppliers. The DfT counts more than 350 Derby jobs, 40 apprentices and 40 students, a further 6,000 supply-chain jobs (its bullet points say "almost 6,000"), and around £360 million for the wider economy.

Alstom's release bills the trains as Britain's first mainline battery-electric fleet, a phrase TransPennine Express and the DfT repeat; Network Rail's version says they "will be among the first battery-electric trains to operate on a UK main line." And the quote from TransPennine Express managing director Chris Jackson opens with "a transformational £1 billion investment" in his own company's release, the DfT's, and Network Rail's, but "a transformational £1.2 billion investment" in Alstom's.

What Derby builds until 2028

Alstom says manufacturing is expected to begin in 2028. The order now on the Derby line, per its June 14, 2024 release, was a contract worth around €430 million (£370 million) for ten nine-car Aventra trains for London's Elizabeth line with maintenance until 2046, funded in part by £220.5 million from the DfT; Nick Crossfield, Alstom's UK and Ireland managing director at the time, said the company was "delighted to now have a confirmed workload for Derby Litchurch Lane." The BBC reports that the 2024 contract came less than three months after a redundancy consultation put 1,300 jobs at risk at the factory.

Alstom's June 5, 2026 release said the first of those ten trains had left the production line and that all ten would be manufactured, tested and introduced into service over 2026 and 2027.

Rob Whyte, Alstom's UK managing director, told the BBC: "We have a period where new builds will stop until the TransPennine order starts." He said refurbishment work already taken on for CrossCountry and ScotRail would absorb as many staff as possible. Alstom's release puts the maintenance contract at an initial eight years with a possible eight-year extension, supporting over 100 roles.

Outlook

Alstom's footnote says the order will be booked in the second quarter of its 2026/27 fiscal year, and its financial calendar lists half-year results for November 17, 2026, the first place the contract should appear in the company's own reporting. The 2028 build start and the 2027 end of Elizabeth line deliveries leave the gap Whyte described; whether another new-build order fills it is the question for Derby. The three charging sites carry no dates in any of the four releases, and the Drogheda precedent Alstom cites ran from a 2023 award to a planned end-2024 installation; a fleet due from 2032 has more room than that, but the grid connections at Hull, Scarborough and Saltburn are the part of this order that none of the four documents on it sizes.