Northern Rail

[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