Tube Trains Could Be Sent To Yorkshire

By · July 15, 2011 at 10:08 am · 7 Comments · Latest News · Report an error ·

The 08.57 Upminster - Leeds express rumbles by

A report on the BBC reveals that local businesses in North Yorkshire want to increase the number of rail options between Harrogate, Leeds and York by buying old District line stock from London Underground.

The trains in question are the D-stock that run on the main section of the District line. They were built in the late 1970s, and given a thorough overhaul by engineers five years ago, but are scheduled to be replaced by new rolling stock by 2015. LU will then have a fleet of trains in not-too-shabby condition on its hands; if they can be sold on for a tidy sum, more’s the better.

Should they find a new lease of life in the North, they would run on existing mainline routes (which would be electrified via a third rail, meaning that the lines could still carry diesel trains) and would offer up to 60% more seats than the existing services.

If the plan does go through, it will hopefully prove more popular than the last time London flogged off its superannuated transport: a fleet of bendy buses were shipped to Brighton in 2009, to local chagrin.

Photo / Simon-K

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  • Reason

    First they’d have to electrify the rails, a project which was long-delayed and cancelled in the majority of the North. I doubt it will happen anytime soon given that even more money is certain to be moved to TFL as the Olympics approach and they remain behind on the major works. Shame though any place in the UK outside of London would be desperate to have even the cast-off old stock off the underground.

  • Suzie Tall

    It would be madness when there are much more suitable class 313 trains available which work on the correct 25KV electrical system used in Yorkshire!

  • http://twitter.com/topdowntoedown Lewis Cooper

    Sounds like a ploy to get a grant out of some ‘regional development fund’ or something: Government gives fund some money, fund gives the local area the money, money goes to LU for their old trains, LU makes its balance sheet look nicer, Government happy.

    Or is that too cynical?

  • http://twitter.com/topdowntoedown Lewis Cooper

    Sounds like a ploy to get a grant out of some ‘regional development fund’ or something: Government gives fund some money, fund gives the local area the money, money goes to LU for their old trains, LU makes its balance sheet look nicer, Government happy.

    Or is that too cynical?

  • http://www.spiralyne.co.uk/ Spirulina Tablets

    Doesn’t sound so much as something good or necessarily an upgrade for public transport. Getting old underground trains? Why not get new ones? Surely they can do better than 30/40 year old reject trains? Yorkshire is a beautiful area and I think it would be a shame to accept ugly old, polluting trains! Get something new, clean and snazzy so it becomes and attraction.

  • http://twitter.com/steinsky Joe Dunckley

    this is, of course, nothing more than a small town chamber of commerce putting out an attention seeking press release. anybody with even the slightest knowledge of the railways could have listed a million reasons why it’s a really stupid idea, so it’s clear that they haven’t actually talked to NR, LU, or DfT. best to ignore these sorts of stunts.

  • graham

    Correct me if I’m wrong but the current trains are diesel and the trains they wish to use are electric, as such I have never heard of electric trains being described as polluting compared with diesel, also by using trains that are old it keeps the costs down.  Also I have seen some quite impressive artwork put on to trains rather than boring train liveries – again these can be put on old trains just as easily as new.
    In terms of trains as attractions, more people visit heritage lines (Old trains) than would ever visit a new line.

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