Rail passengers through Leeds are now seeing more seats on peak time trains as Northern Rail introduces 50 additional carriages across its network.

The carriages are the result of the Department for Transport's rolling stock programme, which has secured a total of 60 additional carriages for Northern, meaning more seats on 20% of the rail operator's major urban centre peak time trains.

"I am pleased to see that our urgent calls to Government for more capacity have been listened to, and that local passengers will at last see some of the additional trains that they are being asked to finance through the Government's national fare rise in January," said Metro Chairman Cllr James Lewis.

"While the additional capacity is good news, building upon the innovative partnership between Metro, Northern Rail and Yorkshire Forward which brought an extra 800 peak-time seats daily five years ago, passenger numbers on West Yorkshire's rail network have grown by over 50 per cent over the past decade and will carry on rising. It is important that we continue planning ahead to ensure that any future franchises for local services includes measures to meets that on-going growth."

Richard Allan, Assistant Area Director for Northern Rail, said: "Overcrowding has been one of the biggest challenges we have faced and one of the biggest causes of complaint for our passengers. Thanks to the additional carriages and six extra services on our electrified network around Leeds, we will be providing 805,000 extra seats per year for this area during peak hours. We know that these extra carriages will not eradicate overcrowding, but will certainly provide significantly improved journeys for our customers from their introduction this morning."