WEST Yorkshire Passenger Transport Authority have backed a £20m package to pay for 12 extra carriages for the county's MetroTrain network.

The deal includes £8.7m from Yorkshire Forward.

A number of busy routes including the Harrogate, Caldervale, Huddersfield and Pontefract lines will benefit from the extra capacity along with the recently introduced Leeds-Sheffield fast service.

Metro chairman Clr Karam Hussain, of Kirklees, said: "The MetroTrain network had been a major success story with investment by Metro leading to passenger numbers more than doubling over the last 10 years.

"But the price of that success is increasingly full trains.

"Because the Department for Transport's Northern rail franchise contained no provision for growth, we have had find the extra capacity ourselves."

But there is a cost to passengers.

Peak fares are to be increased to help pay for the new rolling stock.

They will go up by 3% above the rate of inflation, meaning an average 5% increase.

The rolling stock will be fully in service by December 2006 and fares will increase from January 2007.