“Ministers have dumped a flagship pledge to scrap the district’s hated ‘Pacer’ trains, to the fury of passenger groups.

The decrepit 30-year-old vehicles – widely condemned as “cattle trucks” – were due to finally be replaced as part of a new contract to be introduced on local lines in 2016. But the department for transport (DfT) has now admitted to the T&A that the Pacers may be “modernised” instead, to keep them running for at least another decade.” Bradford Telegraph & Argus 25th August 2014 Read more here.

The question of the Pacers in particular, and the failure of the rolling stock cascade to provide northern networks with an adequate quantity and quality of rolling stock was taken up by the Transport Committee in the evidence session of 1st September 2014 as part of their Investing in the Railway inquiry.  Apparently it’s the SE networks that gets the newer/better stock, or units at all! See the video here and the questioning by Graham Stringer MP at 16.47