The Huddersfield to Leeds stopper usually carries on to Selby (it's the train I use most days to get to/from work). Since Christmas it's been a 150 every day - at least for the commuter time of day ones. However you'll normally see at least four or five Pacers at Leeds station at any given time.
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Pacers in the Manchester area
- Thread starter SussexMan
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The Huddersfield to Leeds stopper usually carries on to Selby (it's the train I use most days to get to/from work). Since Christmas it's been a 150 every day - at least for the commuter time of day ones. However you'll normally see at least four or five Pacers at Leeds station at any given time.
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61653 HTAFC
Veteran Member
AFAIK It's the via Bradford one that runs to Selby. The via Dewsbury usually runs back whence it came at Leeds. Usual allocation seems to be 1 pacer, 1 sprinter until the early evening shuffle-round at Huddersfield.
Statto
Established Member
Don't think 142s do Leeds-Settle-Carlisle, tends to be 156s, but as mentioned 142s do do Leeds-Morecambe.
61653 HTAFC
Veteran Member
They were semi-regular in Northern Spirit/Arriva Trains Northern days, and early Serco/NS too. Particularly shortly after Neville Hill lost the 156s, before extra 158s arrived.
PHILIPE
Veteran Member
Settle and Carlisle is 158s with some services strengthened by 153s. 142s fortunately have left the route and 156s haven't worked it for years.
Ah fair enough - I know it starts at Selby, then goes to Leeds and on to Huddersfield via Bradford. I assumed it did the same in reverse (not knowing for sure as I get on at Leeds to go to Selby).
61653 HTAFC
Veteran Member
It may well do the same in reverse (apart from the one that arrives at Huddersfield after 1700, which forms the Penistone line extra). It's only recently that the via Bradford service has started to show as 'Leeds via Bradford Interchange' on the screens at Huddersfield, rather than just Bradford Interchange.
Another 'advantage' of South Wales Pacers is you're guaranteed no bus seats, as all of ATW's 142s and 143s have high back 2+2 seats and most have recently been given a thorough deep clean. I was on two at the weekend that had Wifi fitted as well!
I'd be interested to know where the OP has decided to visit.
Well I've booked an Advance up to Manchester on a Friday evening in February and back from Liverpool on the Saturday evening. Like the idea of returning on a different route. £44 return for the both of us can't be bad, plus a Travelodge Room for £16.50 in Manchester feels like a bargain. Didn't think I'd find an Advance fare leaving London on a Friday evening but there was just one time slot with an Advance fare which works out OK for us.
Perhaps Leeds will be done another time as that seems to have been mentioned a lot - unless my son is put off the idea of Pacers by then! I looked at Cardiff but timings weren't quite so good and couldn't get quite as good a deal with travel and accommodation.
Thanks again to everyone who has replied - been really surprised by the number of replies.
If you wanted to see Class 144s, then Leeds was the place to be this morning at 7:30am. I arrived from Selby on a 3-car 144022, which stopped opposite 144005 and the very special 144012 - Porterbrook's 144e. I think there might have been another further down on platform 9, but couldn't quite see well enough. There were of course three or four Class 142s sitting around at that time too.
306024
Established Member
Another option, depending on fares, could be Manchester to Southport, pacers observed on that last week, my train was formed of one and we passed a 14x/15x combination on that route. Get a decent run on a 507/508 from Southport back to Liverpool too as they won’t be around too much longer.
Regarding Northern's Pacers I was talking to a friend of mine over the weekend and he seems to think now that with all the delays with electrification works and refurbishments to the current fleet that Pacers could be around until about 2025 at least, not to sure how true this is though as I thought that they were due to be withdrawn starting either this year or next year
Since their replacement was announced there has been a number of pessimists who say they won't actually go. If you think through Northern's rolling stock plan there is no need for them to stay past 2019. By that point the majority of 195s and 331s will have arrived, along with more cascaded stock. Even the Bolton electrification debacle will sure be over in 22 months time. The cost of upgrading them to PRM-TSI standard to be allowed to stay in service in 2020 is too high. They are being withdrawn from this September and the last will be gone in October 2019. I suspect some of the intial departures will be delayed until December timetable change.
northwichcat
Veteran Member
While Northern's refurbishments and cascades may be behind schedule and it's possible their new build might arrive late I think retaining for Pacers for 5 extra years is unlikely. However, it's worth remembering the W&B franchise haven't sorted out Pacer replacements yet and one of the 144s has had a PRM refurbishment, so I think it's possible that 144 might remain in service for a while yet on a branch line which only requires a single unit e.g. Cardiff Bay Shuttle, in the same way that a single bubble car was used in the past.
Still plenty of 142 Pacers up here on the Durham Coast line, although there seems to be more 156 Sprinters running this year. The Pacers show their cornering skills on the tight bends either side of Hartlepool station, lots of joyful squealing. We still have some manned signal boxes and semaphore signals too. Heavily cropped photo shows passing Pacers.- Status