ROLLING STOCK
West Yorkshire has welcomed its ‘new’ 322s - Scottish trains recycled onto commuter routes. RTM reports. C
ommuters in Leeds have welcomed 2,000 extra seats a day on train ser-
vices in their region as the Government touts a £10m investment in the rail net- work.
The fi ve Class 322 units, built in 1990 for the Stansted Express, have more re- cently been running on the Glasgow and Edinburgh to North Berwick route, but from December this year will run on the lines from Skipton, Ilkley and Doncaster via Wakefi eld into Leeds, offering passen- gers 20 additional carriages a day.
The Government said they would “form part” of the 650 extra carriages being add- ed to the rail network by 2014. The Class 322s would otherwise go out of service as Siemens delivers its new Class 380s to ScotRail.
The whole fl eet of 322s were completely refurbished and given new seating layouts, passenger information systems, lighting and door controls at the Hunslet-Barclay works in Kilmarnock between July 2005 and February 2007.
Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said: “Even at a time of severe pressure on public spending we cannot afford not to invest in Britain’s future – and that’s why we are in- vesting more than £10m in providing these
extra carriages for Yorkshire commuters. These extra trains will ease crowding and provide passengers with more comfortable journeys.”
Plenty of online commentators took is- sue with the Government’s framing of the news, with this person’s comment being typical: “Unless I’m missing something, these aren’t ‘additional carriages’ on ‘the UK’s rail network’, just ones moved from central belt Scotland to Leeds.”
But passengers in Leeds were happy with the extra carriages regardless of where they had come from, with chairman of regional transport executive Metro, Councillor Chris Greaves, saying: “This is very good news for the many people who have to travel on overcrowded commuter services every day and also represents a welcome boost for the local economy in these diffi cult times.
“The extra capacity will also help Metro’s proposals for new stations at Kirkstall Forge, Apperley Bridge and Low Moor, and mean we can continue to develop local rail services as the quick, convenient and com- fortable way to get around the city region.”
The £10m fi gure is the net cost of addition- al passenger services for the period from April 2011 to the Northern Rail franchise end date, 15th September 2013.
The extra carriages will mean six addition- al trains per day operating on the Leeds- Skipton, Leeds-Ilkley and Leeds-Doncaster routes, with three morning peak trains lengthened on the Leeds-Manchester Victoria and Bradford Forster Square- Leeds routes.
The DfT is in discussions with Northern Rail on adding more carriages to the re- gion’s train services. The cascade of 322s is, however, allowing Northern to transfer some of its DMUs to the Leeds-Bradford- Manchester route. The DfT said: “In total, for both Leeds and Manchester, the ad- ditional carriages are planned to provide seating and standing capacity for an extra 3,173 passengers every day – 1,907 during the AM three-hour peak and 1,266 during the PM three-hour peak.”
Ian Bevan, managing director of Northern Rail, said: “We’ve attracted 36% more pas- sengers since we began operating in 2004 and have been working closely with the DfT and other partners to introduce much- needed additional capacity.
“These carriages will enable us to provide an extra 600,000 seats every year for pas- sengers on peak-time services.”
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opinion@railtechnologymagazine.com rail technology magazine Apr/May 11 | 203
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