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Goodbye Old Friend! Farewell Tour For TransPennine Express (TPE) Trains Raises £16,000 For Charity

Goodbye Old Friend! Farewell Tour For TransPennine Express (TPE) Trains Raises £16,000 For Charity
Written by Amy

TPE say goodbye to their Class 170 trains with a farewell tour that raises more than £16,000 for Prostate Cancer UK and The Railway Children.

The Class 170 trains, which operate on TPE’s south route, will be leaving after nine years of service for their new home at Chiltern Railways, but have bowed out in style with a farewell tour that raised more than £16,000 for charity.

Together with the Branch Line Society (BLS), TPE ran two special charter trains over the weekend of July 2ndand 3rd. The main tour ran from Manchester Airport to Cleethorpes and back, taking in areas of track normally not used for passenger trains. The tour also included a visit to the Light Maintenance Depot at Cleethorpes.

More than £16,000 was raised for Prostate Cancer UK, TPE’s partner charity, and The Railway Children, through a combination of tickets to travel on the service, an on-board raffle, and catering trolley takings.

Luke Gardner, Diagramming Manager for TPE, who helped organised the tour, stated; “This is the fifth charter we have run with the BLS raising £115,000 in total. The challenges of running such a complex train seem to constantly shift and change, but the money raised, and the enjoyment from customers and staff alike, make it all worth it. We’re happy to have given our Class 170s a great send off after nine years of service with TPE.

Kev Adlam, Fixtures Secretary from the BLS, commented: “There was great teamwork and fantastic communication shown between industry partners to deliver a raft of unusual track and routes for passengers and in the process raise a huge amount of money for good causes.”

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Amy