TransPennine Express wins Golden Spanner Award for Class 185 fleet

TransPennine Express and partner Siemens Mobility took the top prize for the Class 185 fleet at the prestigious annual Golden Spanner Awards

The awards are organised by Modern Railways Magazine and see the rolling stock sector come together to recognise excellence in train maintenance. This year saw over 300 representatives attend from right across the rail industry for the in-person event in London, after last year’s awards being held virtually due to the pandemic.

A Golden Spanner Award — Credit: Modern Trains

TransPennine Express (TPE) Class 185 fleet which are maintained by Siemens in Ardwick, Manchester, won the most reliable modern diesel multiple units in the UK, with this award marking a very impressive sixth win in this category.

TPE also received further recognition for other fleets including the second generation new intercity trains category, with their Hitachi Nova 1s (Class 802s) receiving a silver award for most improved reliability.

TPE’s CAF Nova 2s (Class 397s) also took home a bronze award for fastest incident recovery.

Golden Spanner Awards Host, Roger Ford — Credit: Modern Trains

Paul Staples, Fleet Director for TransPennine Express said: “We are all committed to running a railway that our customers can depend on and I am so pleased that the reliability of our Class 185 trains has again been recognised by industry experts at this year’s Golden Spanner Awards, not to mention our Class 397 and Class 802 fleets making their first appearance in the honours list.

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“A huge amount of time and effort goes into maintaining all of our trains and my thanks and congratulations go to everyone in the teams involved for a fabulous achievement.”

Sambit Banerjee, Managing Director of Rolling Stock and Customer Services for Siemens Mobility in the UK, said: “We are absolutely delighted to see our TransPennine Express Class 185’s win a Golden Spanner again. It is great to see this dependable and reliable fleet recognised time and time again – especially with the ongoing digital project to further enhance the fleet. A huge thank you to the Siemens Mobility and TransPennine teams at Ardwick for all their collaboration and hard work in making sure this fleet has industry-leading reliability to ensure a great passenger experience!”