Written Question: Corroded Trains

Lord Moylan: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of corrosion-related defects on the availability of Class 150 and Class 156 rolling stock operated by Northern Trains; and how many units remain unavailable for passenger service as a result of those defects.

Minister of State, Department for Transport (Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill, CBE):

Northern has introduced a rolling programme of maintenance to manage corrosion-related defects affecting parts of its Class 15X fleets.

As this is a rolling programme, the numbers of trains undergoing continued service operation works changes, but as of 30 October 2026 this was: four Class 150; one Class 155; four Class 156; and one Class 158.

Northern is talking to other operators and rolling stock owning companies to identify any suitable rolling stock that could be cascaded to provide additional capacity or replace trains that have reached the end of their lives.