The first Pacers will be sent off-lease from Northern on September 15 2018, with the final trains released on October 12 2019.
In the franchise competition eventually won by Arriva, the Government had announced that the Class 14x fleet in use by Northern would have to be withdrawn, with the disabled access deadline of January 1 2020 acting as the catalyst.
The withdrawal dates were revealed when the Department for Transport released the Northern franchise agreement on March 1. First to be released will be five two-car Class 144s owned by Porterbrook. The final two-car ‘144s’ will be withdrawn on January 5 2019, while the ten three-car ‘144s’ (144014-144023) will be released on March 31 2019.
- For much more on this, read RAIL 822, published on March 15.
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Comments
Manchester Mike - 06/03/2017 16:03
I don't have any confidence that DfT can manage to have the Pacer replacements in full service by this deadline.
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Isambard Jean Jacques Brunel - 15/03/2017 13:55
Not DfT's problem though, is it!
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Jonathan - 06/03/2017 17:35
Excellent news , second hand greenhouses now coming to a garden near you!
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flocktonflyer - 15/03/2017 12:43
why cant northern use the eurostars insteadeof scrapping them there reliable eurostars and easily up to the job and could be used on the woodhead route also why ????
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Simon Adams - 16/03/2017 13:59
What of the ATW Pacers? There's no plan in place at all.
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FrankH - 01/05/2017 21:48
All pacer types will have to be replaced prior to 1st january 2020 due to not being disabled access compliant.
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