I doubt that 3*23m carriages can be justified for off-peak services that currently (before the schoolkids peak) have empty seats even when operated by a 142!
You don't think so?
I can see a great many similarities between Northern's local network in the North West and Birmingham's Snow Hill lines, for which 3-car and 2-car (Commonly operating in pairs as 4-car trains during the week, and then singly at weekends) class 172s seem to be perfect: Many of the routes in both cases are medium distance and part rural, part urban in nature, with a high density commuter traffic through the core at peak times, as well as a healthy leisure traffic drawn to the principal city at off-peak times.
Northern operate trains that are very similar in capacity, and in some cases, in consist, to the class 150 formations that previously plied their trade on the Snow Hill lines before the 172s took over. Indeed, GMPTE used to have a fleet of 3-car "hybrid" 150s just as Central Trains did more recently.
I can see an awful lot of similarity in particular between the Stratford-upon-Avon route and the Buxton branch, and the 3-car class 172/3s are the regular traction on the Stratford services with 4-car class 172/2 formations used on the more urban services that terminate at Whitlocks End which would be equivalent to the Hazel Grove terminating services, although in the latter case these of course will soon be formed of EMUs.
In short, a mix of 2 and 3-car class 172s seem perfect to me for Northern's services radiating fro Manchester, allowing the flexibility to form up any train length between two and six carriages using units singularly or in pairs.
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Not quite. A 156 won't need to be fitted with 8 sets of double doors to comply, which is what a 172 has.
Additionally, the class 156s are already fitted with toilets that are disabled accessible, although perhaps not to the extent that the 2020 regulations will require, and have large luggage areas, so any physical modifications that need to be made to accommodate the 2020 regulations are unlikely to encroach on the existing passenger saloon space. The bigger changes to the class 156s to comply with DDA regulations is likely to be in terms of things like the PIS displays and the vestibules I would have thought.
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So presumably after accessibility modifications a 156 will be reduced to a similar number of seats to a 172/2? And a 150 maybe have fewer still?
Aren't the ex-FNW 150s already "semi-compatible" with the 2020 DDA regulations, in that they are fitted with the larger toilet already, but lack other necessary features such as the passenger information screens? If so, the capacity of the 150s, if fully refurbished to be DDA compliant, shouldn't fall far below this level, which is a capacity of 124 on the 150/1s.
