Northern Pacers back in business in the North West

Pacers will return to passenger services in the North West, running on the Southport-Manchester/ Alderley Edge route.

They are needed because of the delayed introduction of four-car Class 769 FLEX bi-modes.

Northern confirmed in June that it was keeping 33 Pacers for the rest of the year ( RAIL 907), having received dispensation from Government to extend their withdrawal deadline until the end of the year. None of the 13 Class 142s or 20 Class 144s that are being retained meet accessibility regulations, and initially they were to be kept as a contingency.

When it took over the franchise in April 2015, Arriva planned that by the end of the decade all 101 Pacers in the Northern fleet would be withdrawn. The fact that so many remained in service last year prompted outrage from regional mayors - those same politicians are now on the nationalised operator’s advisory board and will have had to sign off the use of the ‘142s’ in the North West.

The ‘769s’ were needed to cover for delays to electrification projects in the North West, but were themselves delayed during their conversion from Class 319 electric multiple units. While all eight ordered have been delivered (Northern is leasing them from Porterbrook), crews are unable to carry out driver training on them due to social distancing rules because of COVID-19.

A Northern spokesman told RAIL: “This is not a decision we have made lightly, but it is necessary as we are unable to run the Class 769 bi-mode trains as planned.

“Coronavirus meant we had to pause training on the new trains and, as a result, we are not currently in a position to operate them. We are working on plans to reintroduce training and roll out the Class 769s as soon as possible.”