According to Wikipedia Northern Rail and Arriva Wales are the only train operators that still use Pacer 142s, with Arriva Wales only having very few trains.

If are on a 142 between Navigation Rd and Stockport you need earplugs from the amount of noise they make when they go over 60mph.

Northern Rail are apparently now planning to replace SOME 142s with 158s formly used by Transpennine Express or Central Trains.

Slightly less than half of Northern Rail's trains used to be operated by the 'Arriva Trains Northern' franchisee and they haven't bothered to repaint the trains. So the train was probably not a former Arriva Trains Wales service.

On a similar topic, I am annoyed that the 175s perviously operated by First North Western all went to Arriva Trains Wales when they redid the franchisses. They've even left most of them in First North Western's dark blue colour!

The train was a former First North Western service.

If it wasn't for the 175's Arriva Trains Wales wouldn't have a decent train.:D

Having just caught this thread,

All I will say is this, I trained as a driver with the Cardiff Railway Company and I worked the valley lines for the next three years and I don't think the
14X series should be on the tracks at all.
From a drivers point of view they are the worst unit I have ever driven but as has been said they are ok on long welded rail but an absolute garbage ride on the short sections.

Les

It will never happen as they are cheap to run and maintain. They would have been replaced if that Wilmslow crash a few years back had involved passengers as the loss of life would have been horific.

Northern Rail use former Arriva Trains Northern trains on former First North Western routes. One train which I usually catch (a train from St Annes on Sea to Greenbank arriving 09:14) it quite often consists of a 2 carriage former First North Western train attached to a 2 carriage former Arriva Trains Northern train.

What do you actually define as a short journey? There are routes like Doncaster to Adwick where the total journey duration is under 15 minutes, while there are other journeys defined as local e.g. Chester to Manchester via Altrincham where the journey takes about 90 minutes, which is defined as a local route but 90 minutes would be a long time to spend travelling on a 142.

Sorry going to have to correct you there First Great Western (FGW) also have a limited number of the units also

I absolutely detest any of the 14x series as a former guard at Leeds and Harrogate I had my fill of them all in the early 1990's they are long overdue replacement and were a step backwards from the conventional DMU's they replaced the sooner in the scrapyard the better, what an embarrasment they are if any of my colleagues from other European railways ride on them let alone see them.
A class 31 and 4 mkII's is a much better quality train .

Arriva occasionally use them on the "swanline", the service which stops at every station on the line from Cardiff to Swansea, on a 153 that takes about 75 minutes so really wouldn't appreciate being on a 142 for that long.

The longest journey i've been on a 142 was from Cardiff to Maesteg as there was a signalling failure at severn tunnel junction so the train from gloucester was delayed.. unfortunately this 142 apparently couldn't go above second gear so all in all it took far longer than it should have.

They're really not much fun to ride when at full capacity (or more) at rush hour.. bring back the class 37 hauled trains!

(off topic, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GwOzaUZ_ZE is a video of a class 37 going through my local station.. about 2 minutes walk away)