Latest Rail News

12.02.13

Interior refresh for Northern Rail trains

Northern Rail’s improvement programme is seeing 58 vehicles refreshed with improved interiors on Class 142 trains.

The Pacer fleet consists of 150 vehicles in total. The work will see new upholstery, improved lighting, replaced flooring, repainted interiors, vestibule ends and seat repairs. The programme began at the end of last year, with every two carriages taking an average of a fortnight to complete.

The Class 142s are used on routes in the North East to Morpeth, Newcastle-Carlisle, Durham Coast, Saltburn and Whitby.

Stuart Draper, engineering director for Northern Rail, said: “We are known to have some of the oldest trains on the rail network and this refurbishment project is testament to our passengers that we are committed to improving their journeys with us.

“Customers have told us they’d like to see an improvement in the on-board environment and we’re passionate about acting on these requests. These refurbishments to our fleet in the North East add to the carriages we have already improved and we hope passengers will notice the developments as we plan more for 2013.”

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Comments

John   15/02/2013 at 19:32

This is surely a waste of money. The 142's never were good vehicles and are now a long way past their "sell by" date! They are uncomfortable, noisy, cramped with a terrible ride. Scrap the wretched things and replace them with decent trains. The Fare Payers deserve better!

Chris   16/02/2013 at 09:48

Well said John, this is another sop to the travelling public in the North grrr!

Mikeyb   16/02/2013 at 12:40

Totally agree John. It looks as if Northern (and their successors) intend keeping these wretched things in service for some time to come. I wonder what sort of cascade there will be, when the North West electrification is complete and 30 year-old refurbished EMUs arrive from down South. Will the 156s disappear to another TOC leaving the North with refurbished 142s plus 150s (which I consider to be nearly as bad).

Michael Still   21/02/2016 at 19:55

Looking at these interiors they look far better than the past. I believe Alex Northern Rail MD has been fighting to replace these trains and he will in time.

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