The Yorkshire Post can reveal new locomotives being brought in by National Express, which is taking over east coast mainline services from GNER in December, are older, slower and less green than those already running.

Roy Wicks, director general of the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive, has criticised the lack of investment in the region's rail services and said Yorkshire is "quickly becoming a museum of older rolling stock on the Northern franchises".

There is a deep sense of disappointment in Yorkshire that the Government overlooked the region's needs in this summer's long-term vision for the rail network, which will see billions of pounds pumped into two new London lines – the north-south Thameslink and east-west Crossrail.

Hull Trains, which also runs services into London, has been forced to hire a vintage engine – introduced in 1965, withdrawn from service at the turn of the millennium and preserved by rail enthusiasts – with no alternative available to replace a damaged locomotive.

And despite seeing a huge increase in its number of passengers, Northern Rail, which runs the majority of services between Yorkshire's towns and cities, was told when awarded its Government franchise that it would not receive new trains as it was not destined to grow.

Despite an acknowledgement that trains around Leeds will soon be the most crowded in the UK, there has only been a pledge to provide between 60 and 90 new carriages for the area by 2014, with a handful more for trains around Sheffield and those on the Trans-Pennine route to Manchester.

There was no mention of major infrastructure investment on the east coast mainline, which Network Rail believes essential to reducing overcrowding and keeping ticket prices down, only a promise the line would get a trial batch of new Intercity trains in 2012.

That has forced National Express – which is paying the Government £1.4bn up to 2015 for the line – to bring in diesel locomotives with a top speed of 110mph to run the extra services promised from 2010 on the electrified 125mph route between London and Yorkshire.

A National Express spokesman said: "The trains are diesel, yes, but as part of our engineering to make them as green as possible we're putting new engines in.

"We've promised 25 new services a day from 2010. At the moment there's a lot of competition for trains between the operators and these were the only ones available until the new Intercity Express trains come in 2012."

A similar problem befell Hull Trains, which has taken nine months to replace one of its four locomotives after it fell from jacks while undergoing maintenance, causing damage that will take two years to fix.

Managing director Mark Leving said that the company had no option but to take on a locomotive built in 1965 for weekend and Friday evening services.

He said: "Our biggest challenge has been to find a suitable alternative when there is simply no spare rolling stock available in the UK. This has made the issue very problematic to say the least."

The Yorkshire Post is running a Road to Ruin campaign, highlighting historic underspending on the region's transport infrastructure.

Despite only receiving £215 per person for road and rail in Yorkshire, compared with London's £615 per person, Transport Minister and Doncaster Central MP Rosie Winterton told Parliament this week that spending had risen 77 per cent in the region in the last six years.

But Mr Wicks said he was worried the Government's rail white paper carried too heavy a focus on London and only vague promises to increase rolling stock in the regions.

He said: "When you go down to London you'll see new trains everywhere. But the local services up here use old trains.

"The Government has promised 1,300 new carriages, most of them going to London. But we need to be at the front of the queue. If you look at growth in passenger numbers, it's greater here than in London."