A RAIL users' pressure group has welcomed moves to put new trains on the trans-Pennine route.
As reported in the Examiner on Friday, transport firms FirstGroup and Keolis have ordered 56 new three-car Desiro diesel trains for the service - running through Huddersfield - which they take over next year.
The 100mph trains, due to come into service in early 2006, will be built in Germany.
But they will be maintained at new depots in York and Manchester and at an existing depot in Cleethorpes.
Peter Marshall, of the Huddersfield, Penistone and Sheffield Rail Users' Association, said the move should make rail travel more comfortable for passengers.
Unlike the trains now on the route, the new Desiro units will have 4ft-wide doors spaced along the length of each car.
Mr Marshall said: "One of the big bugbears for rail users is the problem of 200 people trying to get on the train at Huddersfield every morning.
"The existing trains - with narrow doors at the end of the carriages - are desperately slow to load and unload.
"The new design will provide passengers with a quicker journey, less time spent getting on and off and a better environment in the coaches themselves," said Mr Marshall.
