Passengers told they can expect better and more frequent trains
Northern’s new rolling stock nears completion
RAIL PASSENGERS in Yorkshire have been told to expect better and more frequent services around the region with the start of the arrival of a fleet of new ultra-modern trains later this year.
Rail firm Northern is preparing to phase out its outdated Pacer trains from December and to replace it predominantly with a fleet of new trains worth half a billion pounds and capable of reaching 100mph.
The new trains, coupled with new services, will see Northern offering tens of millions of new services by 2025.
The managing director at Northern, David Brown, called the investment a “landmark moment for rail travel in the North of England”.
“As well as looking like 21st century trains, our new state-ofthe-art units will be capable of travelling at 100mph, will have Wi-Fi, plug sockets at every seat, will be air conditioned and fully accessible,” he said.
The first new trains are set to come off of the production line in Zaragoza, Spain, and will be phased into the Northern network from December and throughout next year.
His colleague, Richard Allan, the head of customer experience, called the investment “a real vote of confidence in the North”.
“It is half-a-billion pounds worth of new trains coming in for local rail in particular,” he said.
“Other operators have had new trains coming in for longer distance journeys but to get half a billion pounds worth of investment into local rail certainly has not happened for a generation.”
He added: “A lot of people have been campaigning for this for many years, including business and media, and saying that the North deserves better.
“Well, the North is getting what it deserves and we don’t want to stop here, we want to do more of it and will be pushing for more.
“Over the course of the franchise we expect to carry a significant number of more journeys.”
OFTEN DISPARAGED as “buses on rails”, Pacers are among the oldest trains in the country, forming a large proportion of the stock used on Yorkshire’s rails and are the bane of many commuters’ lives.
However, from December, the much-derided trains will begin to disappear from our railways and be replaced in the main by new vehicles which will be among the most modern trains in the UK and operated by the Northern franchise.
The journey to bring the new trains to the region has been a long and arduous one for Northern, which will lease the state-ofthe-art trains from a rolling stock operating company, Eversholt, which has paid £490m for the trains.
The Yorkshire Post travelled to Zaragoza in Spain to see the first of the new trains prepare to come off the production line. For rail aficionados, the 98 new trains are a mixture of electric unit Class 331s and diesel unit Class 195s, and are manufactured by international train giant CAF.
The units will are capable of reaching speeds of 100mph and feature free wi-fi as well as air conditioning, extra seats, wheelchair access, power sockets and more storage. They form part of a new stock alongside fully-renovated trains.
For Richard Allan, Northern’s customer & people experience director and deputy managing director, the new fleet is a personal milestone.
“When I stepped on board this train for the first time today it was real ‘wow moment’ and quite an emotional moment as well,” he said. “The reason I say that is that I have been at the company for 11 years and we have tried very hard to bring in new trains and it did not work out for various reasons. So actually I never thought this day would happen.”
The first trains will be track tested in Britain by August and are expected to come into service by December.
The remainder of the new stock will be cascaded into service gradually over 2019 with the Pacers to be scrapped altogether by January 2020.
For Mr Allan, the new trains mark what he and his firm hope will be a turning point for passengers. “Customers are going to see more services,” he said.
“Every train will be either brand new or at the very least fully refurbished. And that step change in quality from the oldest train fleet in Britain to one of the youngest ones, with nearly 100 brand new trains, is going to happen and will happen over the next 24 months.
“My message to customers is things are going to get better.”
With the new stock, Mr Allan hopes to reduce delays owing to less requirement for frequent maintenance of older trains.
As he puts it, “these trains are maintained by computer rather than a spanner”, and Northern said it plans more than 2,000 extra services each week, with about 400 additional Sunday services.
This will include new direct journeys from Bradford to Wakefield, Sheffield, Nottingham, Liverpool and Hull, as well as from Leeds to Chester and Bridlington, from Lincoln to Leeds, and from Manchester Airport to Bradford and Halifax.
Mr Allan pointed toward the effect that was seen after the electrification of the route between Manchester and Liverpool where journey growth increased by 12 per cent in six months and said that he hoped to see comparable boosts in passenger numbers when the new and renovated trains move into service.
The managing director at Northern, David Brown, said: “Our modernisation programme is gathering pace and the promises we made at the start of the franchise are really taking shape.”
My message to customers is things are going to get better. Richard Allan of Northern Rail on the 98 new units being built in Spain.