IT WILL not be good news to those who regularly use the train services around Bradford, for commuting to work or for pleasure, to hear that plans to phase out the old-style carriages currently in use seem to have now been put on ice.

One of the biggest complaints among rail users is that the carriages are tired, out-of-date and uncomfortable. Many of those currently in use around Bradford are three decades old and no longer fit for purpose in a 21st century public transport network.

But it appears that travellers will have to put up with them a while longer as the Government has seemingly withdrawn plans to phase them out and replace them with newer rolling stock.

We are constantly told that we need to get more people out of their cars and on to public transport to help reduce congestion on our roads and cause less environmental damage.

That will only happen if public transport is comfortable. People should not have to put up with being crammed into carriages that are too old and too few: many peak-time services are woefully under-served by the number of carriages available for the amount of people who need to use them.

If old rolling stock must still be used, perhaps it is time for the train operators to at least reassess how they organise their services so that there are more carriages available at peak times and fewer in the middle of the day when many routes are less well used.

With fares on the increase, as recently announced, many commuters will wonder just what they are paying for in the wake of this latest blow.