Passengers face commute on 50-year-old trains at worst-performing rail operator

Passengers travelling with Britain’s worst-performing rail operator will be forced to commute in 50-year-old trains for the next decade.

Northern Trains has said it will replace as many as 450 ageing trains, or two thirds of its fleet, which run through the North West and North East of England.

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Models known as Sprinters, which have a top speed of just 75mph and date from the mid-1980s, will be stood down first, by which time they will be almost 50 years old.

Northern, Britain’s second-biggest train operator and the largest outside London with 2,500 daily services connecting more than 500 stations, said it had invited manufacturers Alstom, Siemens, Hitachi, CAF and Stadler to begin negotiations on supplying the trains.

Tricia Williams, Northern’s managing director, said that with almost 60pc of the fleet already between 32 and 40 years old, it was “important to get the ball rolling on the replacement”, and pledged that the new rolling stock would be “game-changing” for customers.

Lord Hendy, the rail minister, said the upgrade “will create smoother journeys and help Northern provide the services their passengers deserve”.

Northern was the worst-performing train operating company in the country last year, topping the cancellations league table with 6.5pc of its services being withdrawn.

Archaic labour agreements have also stymied operations, with some staff in the east of the region contracted to work Sundays while those in the west cannot be required to do so.

to communicate with staff, with Ms Williams claiming that switching to email and more modern IT systems would require an agreement with unions.

Northern said the new trains will be a mix of electric and diesel-electric models, with bidders asked to include battery-powered options as part of their proposals.

Three quarters of the lines used by Northern are non-electrified with little likelihood of them being upgraded, making battery technology the only option for reducing reliance on diesel traction.

The order will involve a reduction in train types, something that Northern said should improve the resilience of its notoriously unreliable network by simplifying operations and allowing drivers to switch between a wider range of services.

The step will also lower maintenance costs, reducing reliance on taxpayer subsidies, it said.

Alongside the replacement of its oldest Sprinters, Northern will buy a dozen trains for the newly electrified route between Manchester and York. Remaining Sprinters will then be stood down, together with some older electric units.

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