Changes soon to stop Scarborough train depot noise disruption
TransPennine Express say they are set to make some operational changes so the Nova 3 trains are not left at the Seamer Road facility overnight.
Residents in a part of Scarborough could finally get a good night's sleep as there won't be disruption from trains soon.
Those living in and around the TransPennine Express depot on Seamer Road have been complaining about the noise for more than a year now.
But a solution could be on the cards as the train company is set to make some operational changes so the Nova 3's aren't left at the facility overnight.
Paul Staples, Fleet Director at TransPennine Express, said:
"I'd like to say I'm sorry that it's taken so long to solve. We were making good progress and then the whole Covid pandemic hit and that cost us a lot of time in terms of getting our engineers from the specialist companies out to do the work, they couldn't during lockdown and that's why it's taklen so long so I am sorry about that.
"We have made good progress since and we've looked at a huge range of options; lots of things that we thought might be good, some technological changes on the depot, of the trains which proved to either be not possible or they just wouldn't make enough of a difference to protect the night's sleep that our residents have been complainging about.
"So what we're looking at now is to make operational changes to the way we use the Nova 3 trains. When the train arrives at Scarborough station, they will simply be shut down and then they'll be started up the next morning before they go as normal, they won't go down to the depot.
"What we've done is to change our plans in terms of how we use the trains, the drivers and the conductors to a different setup so that we don't have to go on the deopt for fuel and for toilet services, we can do that in Manchester".
He says they are looking to the make the change very quickly as soon as they can get the planning and consultation done.
Paul added:
"It'll take a very few weeks now. We have to go through a process which gets all the different train times uploaded into the National Railway timetables, as this is affecting all of our services between effectively Liverpool and Scarborough. We also have to seek the agreement and permission of partners like Scarborough Borough Council, to make sure everyone agrees this is right balance".
Paul has been speaking to Greatest Hits Radio's Karen Liu: