Rail campaigners in Calderdale want plans to ship revamped old Tube trains from London to the North shunted into the sidings.
The Examiner yesterday - Wednesday - reported how former London Underground trains could be converted into diesel engines to run on rail lines across the North of England.
Warwickshire-based Vivarail Ltd is buying up old District Line stock to convert into D-Trains.
Costing less than half the price of a new train, the refurbished engines and carriages could be sold to the train operator chosen to run the Northern Rail franchise, which will operate local services across the North.
They would replace the 30-year-old Pacer trains which Prime Minister David Cameron wants rid of.
The Halifax & District Rail Action Group (HADRAG) – pushing for a new railway station at Elland – says the D-Trains would be even older and slower than Pacers and may not include toilets.
Pacers have a top speed of 75mph while the D-Train is expected to reach 60mph.
HADRAG chairman Stephen Waring said the group had written to the three shortlisted bidders for the Northern Rail franchise – Arriva, Govia and Abellio – demanding “modern, high quality” trains.
He added: “I cannot speak for other user groups across the North of England but the proposed D-Trains would be completely unsuitable for just about all services on our Calder Valley Line.
“Under the Northern Hub investment plans we expect to see line speed improvements between Manchester and Bradford during the next five years. This should allow more faster trains on the line under the new Northern franchise.
“We need to see some ambition by the train operators with modern, high quality rolling stock for these fast services, not these proposed cast-offs from the London Underground.”
Mr Waring said the Tube trains – electric D78s – were only designed for short journeys and had no toilets. He dubbed the D-Trains “Crawlers.”
According to the Vivarail website toilets could be added to the refurbished models but only on trains of at least three cars.
“Vivarail has apparently got its hands on sufficient vehicles to create 75 units but since Northern Rail alone operates more than 100 Pacers this will clearly be nothing like enough,” said Mr Waring.
“And even a three-car D-Train would only have just about enough seats to replace a two-car Pacer and allow for some relief of the overcrowding currently experienced by Northern Rail commuters.”
Mr Waring said electrification for the Calder Valley Line was a realistic ambition in 10 years’ time and added: “We shall be demanding brand new electric trains when that happens.
“In the mean time we need more modern diesels not secondhand conversions.”
The marketing director of Vivarail is Allan Dare, who has family links to Huddersfield through his father-in-law who lives in Lepton.
