An Introduction...
Trans-pennine express was originally part of the regional railways group, owned by british rail, before privatisation in the mid-90s. The trains were originally all class 158s, some in regional railways colours, but with the older, less comfortable trains in metro colours. the interiors were generally comfortable.
After privatisation, it was northern spirit wha ran the trains, thankfully not for a long period of time as whilst during their ownership of the company there were so many problems (see stories). Mhe up side to northern spirit was that all of the trains were given a new leash of life, by being painted up on the outside and refurbished inside.
From here it was Arriva who an the trains, once again thankfully not for long. Mainly, arriva transpennine express trains never "arriva-ed" on time, if they were not cancelled.
Transpennine express is now part of the first group, and I will now go into the details of the group.

Trains...
First transpennine express now operates mainly brand new class 185 trains, and these are spotless and very comfortable. the only route not operated by these is the Manchester Piccadilly to Hull, this is operated by class 170 turbostars. The trains, although nice, light and airy are still not large enough for the number of passengers they are expected to carry at peak hours, and bizzarely, there is virtually no room to store luggage on the trains, even though they are used to and from Manchester Airport, where surely people will have large cases (or is that just me expressing logic, which can clearly not be used in reality?). otherwise the trains are very good. The class 185s have a maximum seating capacity of 164 in standard class and 15 in first class. They have automated announcements for at stations that tell you where the train is, where it is going and where the next stop is and for the hearing impaired there are also LED information display screens in each carriage with the same information, and when announcments are not being made these screens usually show the time, which is handy for checking if the train is running on time. All tables in standard class have laptop and mobile phone plug in points though these are not available at seats for two. All seats in first class have these plug in points regardless of whether they are tables or not( this is from their timetable and I have not actually checked this myself despite travelling in first class several times).

Stories...
>When I was younger I arranged a journey to and from Manchester airport from meadowhall. At the time northern spirit were in ownership of the company, and were modernising the trains as mentioned earlier. I had arranged it especially so as we would be on a train that had been refurbished each way (you could tell this by the notes in the timetable as only the refurbished trains had 1st class). after being on the outbound train for three minutes there was an announcement: "Ladies and Gentlemen, the next stop will be Sheffield. Change here for services to Leeds, York, London and the North. Passengers travelling on to stations for Manchester Airport, There is a replacement train on Platform seven."no explination or reason given as to why we had to change, the passengers were left baffled. When on the replacement train (an old and scruffy vandalised metro train, that looked as if it had been shipped in specially from a scrap yard, we were on our way again. On arrival at Stockport there was another announcement: "This is Stockport, passengers travelling to stations to Manchester Airport. There is a Bus from Manchester Piccadilly." once again passengers were in confusion as to why we had to change and where on earth the bus would depart from, as we had no idea and the conducter on the train neglected to tell us. We eventually found where the bus was departing from and there were two buses waiting. the driver of the front bus informed us all that we should be on the bus behind, the driver in the bus behind informed us we should use the bus in front. after finding a member of station staff (the station was owned by Virgin trains, and the member of station staff was somewhat more useful) we found the right bus, which was either, and the bus drivers simply said they were having a laugh (not funny, but even then, they were funny about it and made out we were stupid). the bus drivers drove somewhat badly and on arrival at the airport we were surprised that there had not being an acident. the journey back was not much more successful.