Rail minister Lord Hendy has condemned the common practice of leaving redundant rolling stock to deteriorate and then trying to use it again.

He said: ‘There’s nothing more stupid than watching some trains halfway through their lives that have been parked in a field.

‘They’re put back into service, miserably failing on a daily basis because the industry wasn’t coherent enough to send them from the place they aren’t needed any more to the place they were. You can’t believe how stupid that is.’

He also referred to the age of the fleet which is in service, saying: ‘Every train in the north of England is clapped out. You need to replace them all. That’s a really serious investment choice, and GBR and the Government will have to face it head on.”

He was speaking at the annual conference of the Railway Industry Association.

GWR is currently struggling with its plan to introduce Class 175 units from Transport for Wales which were withdrawn a couple of years ago.

The operator wanted to use them on a number of routes in Devon and Cornwall, including the main line between Exeter and Penzance as well as the branches to Okehampton, Barnstaple and Newquay, but repeated failures mean that the older Class 150 units must shoulder the burden.

As a result, a Class 150 failure can mean that services in south west England must be reduced, with frequent cancellations.

Lord Hendy said the problems with rolling stock are something that Great British Railways ‘needs to fix, rather than just putting it on a long wish list’.

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