Northern Rail

[St Helens Rider]

RE: Northern Rail
I have also seen 153's on the Lancaster - Morecombe shuttle.

[SK15 GZG (Moderator)]

RE: Northern Rail

(10/12/2015 00:34)wirralbus Wrote:  Does this Northern franchise operate Class 153's , if so are these units going to be made to comply with the disability regulations .

The Northern franchise currently has eighteen Class 153s - these and the rest of the current fleet will pass to Arriva Rail North upon the changeover next April. The Barton-on-Humber to Cleethorpes service will be transferring to the East Midlands franchise in 2017 (October I think it is) and as a result a single 153 unit will be transferring to East Midlands Trains to operate that service

I'm not sure what's happening with the Class 153s for DDA compliance unfortunately. Considering how low their capacity is already (75 seats maximum) the installation of a fully accessible toilet would reduce the capacity even further. I have read a suggestion of refurbishing them to DDA standards and then converting them into locomotive hauled carriages. I have also read the idea of converting them back into their original Class 155 formations. As good as both of those ideas are I think the latter would be more useful as they could alleviate the shortage of DMUs and boost capacity at the same time

[childwallblues]

RE: Northern Rail

(10/12/2015 20:15)Dentonian Wrote:  According to the Guardian, Arriva TN will get a "reduced subsidy of (only - lol) £1.79 billion. I assume this is over the life of the franchise (9 years), so is a massive reduction compared to the £700+ million a year Abellio gets.
Also, does anyone know whether there will be a change to the fare structure in terms of short journeys competing with commercial buses? In the DfT consultation document last year, this vexed point was raised in a veiled acceptence that subsidies were being used to undercut commercial bus fares for short (off-peak) journeys to/from Leeds and Manchester in particular.

Don't the PTEs set the fares in their area?

[H101GEV (Administrator)]

RE: Northern Rail
I'm quite glad Arriva have won the Northern franchise. The Northern Connect service for Southport is especially interesting, and some new trains at long, long last!

Cosmetically, I hope they will get rid of the purple when they refresh the exteriors and interiors of their fleet. A lot of Northern's trains are desperately grim inside. The current livery is a matter of personal taste naturally, but I detest it.

[RedPanda]

RE: Northern Rail

(11/12/2015 18:34)507009 Wrote:  I'm quite glad Arriva have won the Northern franchise. The Northern Connect service for Southport is especially interesting, and some new trains at long, long last!

Cosmetically, I hope they will get rid of the purple when they refresh the exteriors and interiors of their fleet. A lot of Northern's trains are desperately grim inside. The current livery is a matter of personal taste naturally, but I detest it.

A few less seats as well to increase leg room as well wouldn't go a miss as I always struggle to get me legs into the tight cramped space

[SK15 GZG (Moderator)]

RE: Northern Rail

(11/12/2015 20:11)RedPanda Wrote:  A few less seats as well to increase leg room as well wouldn't go a miss as I always struggle to get me legs into the tight cramped space

I agree that legroom is poor on the Pacers (I'm only 5'9" and even I have very little legroom on those) but removing seats to improve legroom isn't a viable option unfortunately. I would think it's a certainty that the new trains will have much improved legroom compared to the Pacers they will be replacing

[H101GEV (Administrator)]

RE: Northern Rail
I find the 150/2s to be the worst offenders for legroom; the sooner these get refurbished properly the better. The Pacers, especially the former Merseytravel sponsored ones, are poor too.

[RedPanda]

RE: Northern Rail

(11/12/2015 20:56)507009 Wrote:  I find the 150/2s to be the worst offenders for legroom; the sooner these get refurbished properly the better. The Pacers, especially the former Merseytravel sponsored ones, are poor too.

Couldn't they remove 8 seats from each carriage? Imagine it and split it in to quarters taking 2 from each quarter. To be honest its an health and safety issues as knees could be broken on the passenger and on the boss if they aren't removed.

[SK15 GZG (Moderator)]

RE: Northern Rail

(11/12/2015 21:08)RedPanda Wrote:  Couldn't they remove 8 seats from each carriage? Imagine it and split it in to quarters taking 2 from each quarter. To be honest its an health and safety issues as knees could be broken on the passenger and on the boss if they aren't removed.

I would say the chances of that happening any time soon are quite low. Capacity is at a premium at the moment and taking 8, 16, 24 or 32 seats from a 1, 2, 3 or 4 car unit respectively to provide more legroom would not be a very popular move. As I said - the Pacers will be replaced by 2019 by brand new units that will have a much better legroom provision

[H101GEV (Administrator)]

RE: Northern Rail
The 150/2s aren't being withdrawn (worse luck) and I don't see any seats being removed from these units either. They will need a refurbishment though so perhaps they will at least replace the seats with something better.