Cllr Blake responds to potential delays to withdraw Pacer trains

Northern has revealed that some Pacer trains may still be in service in 2020

26 July 2019

Commenting on the announcement that Northern may still have some Pacer trains in service in 2020, Cllr Judith Blake, Leader of Leeds City Council and West Yorkshire Combined Authority Transport Lead, said:

“It is outrageous that repeated promises made by Northern to remove all Pacer trains by the end of 2019 are likely to be delayed, meaning more misery for Yorkshire passengers.

“Rail passengers in the North continue to experience service well below what is acceptable and they deserve to know when Northern will get its act together and actually deliver on their commitments. They could even breach new regulations on disabled access and environmental standards if Pacer trains are not withdrawn by the end of the year as promised.

“The franchise agreements were designed to deliver the step change in services passengers in the North deserve and our economy needs and passengers are rightly exasperated when those promises are not delivered.

“We urgently need the operators, Network Rail and the Department for Transport to put forward a clear plan for how the promises made in the franchises will be delivered not sometime in the future but when they said they would be.”