A FORMER British Rail engineer who has been handed the job of overseeing the replacement of trains once derided as “little more than cattle trucks” says his aim is to ensure the project runs on time.

Ian Hyde has been appointed as Head of New Trains at Northern, the UK’s largest rail operator outside of London.

His immediate responsibility will be overseeing the construction and roll-out of 281 new air conditioned carriages, being built in Spain and costing £500m, due to arrive on the company’s network from late 2018.

They will replace the hugely unpopular Pacer trains still used on some routes including Bishop Auckland to Saltburn.

Two years ago the debate over the Pacers became something of a political football with then Prime Minister David Cameron vowing they would be scrapped, only for the Government to perform an apparent U-turn.

It was then revealed that plans were afoot to modify the vehicles, which were bought as a stop-gap in the 1980s and consist of a bus body mounted on a freight wagon chassis, with a diesel engine slung underneath.

Finally – and after The Northern Echo had launched its ‘Right Lines’ campaign calling for greater investment in the region’s rail network – last year the Government confirmed the Pacers were being phased out.

When Arriva Rail North Limited took over the Northern franchise in December it pledged a multi-million pound modernisation programme including the removal of all Pacers by the end of 2019 and the refurbishment of all remaining train carriages.

Mr Hyde began as an assistant engineer with British Rail and was latterly head of engineering at Cross Country.

He said: “Putting new trains on the rail network is not a quick process and we want to make sure that the new services we provide are clean, modern, spacious and fit for the 21st Century.

“We know Pacers have outlived their welcome and need to be replaced as soon as practicable.

“That is exactly what I aim to do and I want to be able to put the new trains in service on time, attracting more customers to Northern.”

Alex Hynes, Northern’s managing director, said: “Ian has successfully managed rolling stock projects through their engineering design, construction, test and commissioning, on time and within budget.

“His skill at building relationships with stakeholders in a challenging environment has delivered project benefits across international clients, cultures and teams and we are really pleased to secure his services.”