page_title: Pacer (British Rail)
section_title: Class 142
hierarchical_section_title: Pacer (British Rail) / Class 142
caption_attribution_description: BREL (Derby)/Leyland Class 142 "Pacer" 2-car dmu No.142 017 of Northern Rail but in debranded Arriva Trains Wales livery at Leeds on a Bradford via New Pudsey service, 4/08.
context_page_description: Pacer is the operational name of the British Rail Classes 140, 141, 142, 143 and 144 diesel multiple unit railbuses, built between 1980 and 1987. The railbuses were intended as a short-term solution to a shortage of rolling stock, with a lifespan of no more than 20 years.
  All Pacer trains were scheduled to be retired by the end of 2019. The Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations require that all public passenger trains must be accessible to disabled people by 2020. Only one Pacer currently meets this requirement, and the remainder were therefore planned to be withdrawn by that date. Furthermore, a decision in 2015 by the Transport Secretary required that such railbuses be removed from service by 2020 for the then-new Northern franchise, stating that the "continued use of these uncomfortable and low-quality vehicles is not compatible with our vision for economic growth and prosperity in the north".
context_section_description: The next and largest Pacer class was the Class 142. This again was built by Leyland and BREL, in 1985. The body was based on a Leyland National bus, built at Workington in Cumbria. Many fixtures and fittings of the Leyland National could be found on the units. The new class had a greater capacity of 120 passengers per two-car set and the same engines were used. 
  The first sets were used initially on Devon and Cornwall branch lines and on commuter services in the north west. The units from Cornwall were eventually moved to Liverpool and the north east, and the Class 142s became a common sight on services across the north of England. 
  The 142s were upgraded in the early 1990s to include more powerful Cummins engines, which gave a total power output of 460 bhp (340 kW) per two-car set. A number of units were then modified for use on the Merseyside PTE City Line on Merseyrail in the Liverpool region, which included dot-matrix route indicators, improved seating and Merseyrail PTE paintwork. 
  The class 142s moved into the control of Arriva Trains Northern and First North Western at privatisation, and subsequently passed on to Northern Rail, Arriva Rail North, Northern Trains, Arriva Trains Wales and Transport for Wales. Eight Northern Rail units were temporarily withdrawn from service, replaced by a cascading of British Rail Class 158s. First Great Western received 12 units on loan from Northern Rail from December 2007 to November 2011 (five units were returned to Northern in December 2008) to cover for refurbishment of its fleet and to allow most of its Class 158 fleet to be rebuilt as three-car sets.
caption: An Arriva Trains Northern Class 142 Pacer at Leeds
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "SONY DSC", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "DSLR-A350", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "DSLR-A350 v1.00", "Image DateTime": "2008:04:30 13:27:02", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "390", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 6, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "40294", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4556", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/160", "EXIF FNumber": "63/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Action", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:04:30 13:27:02", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:04:30 13:27:02", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "8", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "15/2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "497/100", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "35", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4592", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3056", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "30564", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "52", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}