Alstom and TransPennine Express sign €1.2bn battery-electric train deal
Alstom has signed contracts worth more than €1.2 billion with TransPennine Express (TPE) to supply and maintain 29 five-car battery-electric multiple units (BEMUs) for services across northern England. The deal, funded by rail infrastructure investor Rock Rail, marks the first deployment of Alstom's Adessia Stream platform in the UK and, the company says, the country's first mainline battery-electric train fleet.
The contract breaks down into a rolling stock order valued at approximately €930 million and maintenance agreements worth around €230 million. The maintenance term runs for an initial eight years, with an option to extend for a further eight years. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2032, with manufacturing at Alstom's Derby Litchurch Lane Works starting in 2028.
The deal
The trains are designed for long-distance regional travel, running at up to 110 mph and carrying around 300 seats per unit. On non-electrified sections of track, the battery system enables zero-emission operation. Alstom will install dedicated charging infrastructure at Hull, Scarborough and Saltburn as part of the turnkey package, which the company describes as a UK first on the mainline network.
The fleet will replace part of TPE's existing Class 185 diesel fleet and will serve key northern corridors connecting Liverpool, Manchester, York, Hull, Scarborough and Saltburn. Rob Whyte, Alstom's UK managing director, said the project would support more than 350 jobs at Derby and over 5,500 roles across the broader UK supply chain, with at least £360 million in spending committed to British suppliers.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander welcomed the deal, saying it would allow passengers to "wave goodbye to overcrowded, delayed diesel trains" and step onto faster, cleaner services fit for the future.
Market context
Battery-electric trains have emerged as the practical near-term tool for decarbonising non-electrified regional rail in markets where full overhead-line electrification is too costly or slow to deliver. Alstom reached a commercial milestone in February 2026 when its Coradia Continental BEMU entered service in Germany, followed by France's first battery-powered passenger services in July 2026. Those deployments validate the technology at scale and reduce the perceived risk for UK operators and funders.
The TPE order sits within a broader wave of rolling-stock replacement across British rail. Several operators face ageing diesel fleets that require replacement ahead of the government's target to remove diesel-only trains from the network. Rock Rail, the financing vehicle behind this transaction, has previously structured similar infrastructure-style funding for UK rolling stock, providing long-term capital at the project level rather than on operator balance sheets.
Policy path
The deal aligns with the UK government's Transpennine Route Upgrade programme, a multi-billion-pound modernisation of rail infrastructure between Manchester, Leeds and York. BEMUs offer a cost-efficient path to decarbonisation on route sections that the upgrade will not electrify in the near term.
Broader policy support comes from the government's clean-power and transport-decarbonisation commitments, though the UK has not yet established a direct production subsidy for zero-emission rolling stock comparable to the US Inflation Reduction Act's 45X manufacturing credit. The contract's requirement for British design and manufacture reflects both industrial-policy priorities and supply-chain resilience goals.
Investors and supply-chain firms will watch for the start of manufacturing in 2028, the first delivery milestone in 2032, and any further BEMU orders that could extend the Adessia Stream production run at Derby.