Metro Chairman Cllr James Lewis has welcomed the announcement by the Department for Transport that local train operator, Northern, will be receiving additional trains, some of which will be used to ease crowding on busy West Yorkshire commuter routes.

"The introduction of six additional diesel carriages in December, along with the 20 electric train carriages already earmarked for local services will be good news for some of West Yorkshire hard-pressed commuters," said Cllr Lewis.

"An extra 824 seats will be available each weekday for local peak-time passengers on top of the 2,000 seats on the 20 carriages already announced.

"I am pleased to see that our urgent calls for more capacity are being listened to, and that local passengers will at least see some of the additional trains that they are being asked to finance through the Government's national fare rise in December."

The additional carriages announced today will be used to provide more seats on trains from Halifax and Harrogate to Leeds, and journeys between Leeds and Sheffield, Huddersfield and York. The electric trains which were announced in April will provide more peak-time capacity between Doncaster, Wakefield, Leeds, Bradford, Ilkley and Skipton.

"While today's announcement is good news, passenger numbers on West Yorkshire's rail network have grown by over 50 per cent over the past decade and will carry on rising," continued Cllr Lewis. "It is important that we continue planning ahead to ensure that any future franchises for local services includes measures to meets that ongoing growth."

The introduction of 26 additional carriages in December will be the first since significant increase in train since Metro's innovative £20m partnership with Yorkshire Forward and Northern, which initiative saw the introduction of 12 additional carriages or 1,700 additional seats on peak-time trains into and out of Leeds in 2006.