The latest information from Northern was sent to Stakeholders this evening. I don't think it's top secret, more the reverse. The following from David Brown's letter;
"The event was also a preview of the next wave of new trains entering service on our Leeds – Chester service (from 21 October).
By next Monday we will have 29 of our 101 new trains in service for customers – and a further 40 in the country, undergoing testing or being used for driver training. We will be introducing more new trains onto more new routes over the coming months and by the end of 2019, we expect to have more than 50 new trains carrying customers.
The introduction of new trains meant we were able to retire the first Pacer train in August, and as more new trains enter service, we can get on with the internal cascade of various types of trains and then retire more Pacers. We expect the majority of Pacers to be retired from service by the end of 2019. However, as a result of delays in the delivery of our new trains from manufacturer CAF, we have sought approval for a small number of Pacers to operate on a handful of routes in South/West Yorkshire and the North West for a few weeks into 2020.
This plan will help Northern ensure we maximise capacity for our customers. Other UK train operators are looking to retain some older trains into 2020, again because of delays in the delivery of their new trains. On routes where we plan to use Pacers, we will deliver enhanced customer communications to help customers with special assistance needs and have robust customer service processes in place to ensure customers will be able to get where they need to be.
Overall, we plan to operate the majority of our new trains by the end of 2019, retire the majority of Pacers by the end of 2019, and during the first half of 2020 the introduction of the final new trains will mean we can retire all the Pacers.
Finally, you may have seen recent speculation in the media about Northern. As you will be aware, it is on record that the Northern franchise has faced several material and unprecedented challenges in the last couple of years – many of which have been outside the direct control of Northern. The most significant of these are the ongoing, late delivery of major infrastructure upgrades. These have obviously had a significant effect on the franchise plan agreed with government back in 2015.
Despite this, we are delivering on our franchise commitments including over 2,000 new services per week and delivering new trains and better stations worth £600m. We’re also delivering our 101 new trains – twice the number we were asked to provide.
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