They blamed Automatic Train Control for the crash even though having Pacers and Intercitys on the same route is like having trains and trams on the same route, which is definetly not allowed.

Also the Pacer may not have been going the way it was meant to, it was at Winsford (on the Liverpool to Crewe line) when it was supposed to be travelling empty from Crewe to Manchester Piccadilly.

http://danger-ahead.railfan.net/repo...ord990623.html

Pacers are often used on the south wales main line from maesteg to cardiff and cardiff to swansea which also has an hourly service each way by FGW (london-swansea-london).

142's are alot better now than they were when they were first introduced as now they have interlocking doors and air brakes and all the nessarry saftey equiptment.

The ones due to go to FGW are mainly the ones that have not been fully refurbished in side 142 003 is one of them for which has been working around Liverpool this week today i saw it sitting all alone in Lime Street on Platform one obiosley spare and just waiting for a 150 or 156 to fail then it willgo out for a run.

The thing with 142's tis thet they have charicter and just need some TLC but what really needs to be done is the whole fleet at Northern to be updated as 150's and 156's are not Mutch younger than the 142's and if you look in fleet books you will see that 150's are about the same age as the 150's.

Also as it hapens the 142 in the above photo 142 026 is now actually in Northern Livery along with one of it's sisters 142 024 both i think ex Arriva Trains Northern.
"Save the Class 142"