Rolling Stock
Midland Mainline inherited a fleet of High Speed Trains from British Rail.
In April 1997 Midland Mainline ordered 13 (later extended to 17) Class 170 Turbostars to operate stopping services. Originally all were ordered as two-carriage sets before it was decided to increase 10 to three-carriage sets. The first entered service in May 1999 and allowed a new timetable with increased frequencies to be introduced with the Class 170s operating most of the all stops south of Leicester, allowing the High Speed Trains to be better used on the longer distance services.
To cover for a shortage of High Speed Trains Midland Mainline hired two Fragonset Class 47s to top and tail a HSBC Rail Mark 2 set on a morning service from Nottingham to St Pancras and evening return to Sheffield from February 2002. In October 2002 Midland Mainline was able to replace these after leasing an additional five Class 43s and two sets of Mark 3 carriages that had been released by Virgin CrossCountry.
In February 2002 Midland Mainline ordered sixteen four-carriage and seven nine-carriage Class 222 Meridian trains based on the Virgin CrossCountry Class 220 Voyager, but with developments to improve passenger comfort and address some of the criticisms aimed at the Voyager. The first entered service in May 2004. The four-carriage sets were to replace the Class 170 Turbostars while the nine-carriage sets were ordered to operate a new service from St Pancras to Leeds via Nottingham and the Erewash Valley Line.
After the Strategic Rail Authority decided the Leeds service could no longer be justified it appeared that the nine-carriage units may have been used elsewhere. Eventually they did begin to enter service from July 2005 releasing one HST for hire to First Great Western while it refurbished its fleet and others to GNER, ironically to let it run extra services to Leeds from May 2007. In 2006/07 the nine-carriage sets each had one carriage removed and inserted into a four-carriage set.
To operate the Project Rio services to Manchester Piccadilly, 23 Class 43s and associated Mark 3 carriages were transferred from Virgin CrossCountry in May 2003. Whilst these were undergoing overhaul, a First Great Western High Speed Train was hired from May 2003 until February 2004. When Project Rio concluded in September 2004, some were transferred to First Great Western and GNER, others went into store.
Midland Mainline's fleet consisted of the following trains at the time they ceased operating:
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