Welcoming today's announcement by the BBC that the Government is going to finance 1,000 new carriages for the national rail network, Metro Chairman Councillor Stanley King said, "I can assure West Yorkshire that Metro will be doing all it can to ensure that some of these carriages are earmarked for the MetroTrain network, when they are introduced.

"Some of our plans for new stations rely upon the introduction of new rolling stock to make them viable and although we have recently introduced 12 extra carriages and hope to confirm soon that we have retained the eight 'threatened' Class 333 train centre cars for the Airedale and Wharfedale lines, we still need more capacity on our trains.

"The Department for Transport has recognised the incredible rise in rail passenger numbers in West Yorkshire, including the doubling of peak time journeys over the past 10 years, and the Strategic Rail Authority, which until last year oversaw the nation's railways, claimed this was evidence that its policies were a success," continued Councillor King.

"Having acknowledged the growth, and bearing in mind the Government's drive to get areas such as the Leeds City Region to 'pull their economic weight', the DfT should be sympathetic to our case for some of these new carriages."