RAIL campaigners and union chiefs have vowed to fight any moves to introduce 30-year-old former Tube trains onto East Lancashire’s lines.

Pendle peer Lord Greaves and the rail union RMT said replacing the current ageing rolling stock with old D-78 Tube trains, refitted with diesel engines, would be a disgrace.

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Private operator Vivarail is understood to be reconditioning the old Underground trains with a view to selling them to operators who want to run the area’s rail services from Clitheroe and Blackburn to Manchester, and the Colne to Blackpool South route from 2016.

According to the RMT and Lord Greaves at least two potential bidders for the northern franchise are interested in using them on local lines.

Lord Greaves said: “It is a disgrace. The north of England is once again being fobbed off with second-hand and second-rate rolling stock from the south.

“The D78s are as old as the existing Pacer trains and the idea is to put diesel engines in them, which will be the same kind as they put in larger Transit vans.

“It is not an appealing prospect. They will have a maximum speed of 60mph, which will be less than the Pacers. I travel in these Tube trains on the District Line and they are rattle traps.

“Down south they are building 1,000 new units for Crossrail and Thameslink and there are 700 to 800 units being constructed for the Inter City Express.”

When Lord Greaves raised the Tube trains issue in the Lords, he was told by Baroness Kramer that the ‘deployment of rolling stock’ was a matter for train operators and Vivarail had developed its D-78 proposals ‘at its own risk’.

Mick Cash, general secretary of the RMT, said: “In New York they are dumping clapped out subway trains in the sea. In Britain they are threatening to dump them on the railways of the north.

“They are being forced to consider replacing one lash-up with another by press-ganging 30-year-old London Underground stock into service, raising serious safety issues.”

Current franchise operator Northern Rail has confirmed that it has not commissioned the work for the old Tube trains.

Robert Samson, a manager for rail user pressure group Passenger Focus, said: “It is important that any new or refurbished trains put into service have the needs of passengers in mind.

“Passengers in the north of England have already told us that they are concerned about the age and quality of the Pacer trains currently in use.”

A Department for Transport spokesman said: “We are committed to improving services for passengers across the north. We recognise that pacers fall short of passengers’ expectations, which is why we will be specifically requiring bidders for the next northern franchise to phase these outdated trains out. These bids must include improved rolling stock.

“The industry is best placed to tell us how more modern, better quality trains can be introduced.”

The news is another blow after Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin backtracked over promises of the wholescale replacement of the unpopular Pacer trains with more modern rolling stock.

On a recent visit to Teeside he said: “There may be odd routes where they will still have a role but overall the Pacers have had their day, and they need to be replaced.”

Jack Straw has previously described the Pacers as ‘buses on coal wagons’. He added, commuters in the home counties or London would never have tolerated them for so long.