A Class above - ScotRail 170 trains arrive at Northern

The trains, which previously provided services north of the border for ScotRail, will undergo a full refurbishment and features available to customers will include power sockets and air-conditioning.

A new type of train for Northern services, training on the Class 170s is expected to start in the next few weeks on a route between Holbeck near Leeds and Nottingham. They will provide services between York, Harrogate and Leeds from May.

The delivery of these trains is another milestone in Northern’s programme of train upgrades as the train operator invests millions in improving its existing fleet and phasing out its older Pacer style trains.

Ben Ackroyd, Director of Engineering at Northern said: “The Class 170s represent an upgrade in the quality of train currently serving this area of Northern’s network and provide a first look at some of the features we will be installing on all of our existing fleet, providing a really high standard of on-board customer experience as we continue our programme of upgrades.”

Two more trains are expected this week and, in total, 16 Class 170 units will be transferred from ScotRail over to Northern over the course of 2018.