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All change on the trains August 18, 2019

East Midlands Trains, run by Stagecoach, became East Midlands Railway, run by AbellioMany train services to and through Sheffield have a new operator from Sunday August 18, 2019 as East Midlands Trains became East Midlands Railway.

The franchise has been operated by UK company Stagecoach Group since 2007 but the UK government has now handed it for 8 years to Abellio. Abellio is part of the Dutch state-owned railway company and the company which also runs London Northwestern Railway, West Midlands Railway, ScotRail, Greater Anglia and, as a joint venture, Merseyrail in the UK.

The East Midlands franchise includes regular services between Sheffield and London St Pancras via Chesterfield, Derby and Leicester. A few services are extended to Leeds via Wakefield Westgate. It also operates some services from Sheffield to Nottingham and to Manchester and Liverpool.

Abellio will be applying a new livery of purple with white doors and lettering to trains from next year and will eventually be introducing 33 five-car electric and diesel bi-mode trains it has ordered from Hitachi, some of which will usually be coupled to form 10-coach trains.

The award of the franchise to Abellio increases the number of rail services in the Yorkshire region which are run by subsidiary companies of European state-owned railways. Cross Country, Grand Central and Northern are all part of Arriva, part of German state-owned Deutsche Bahn.

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