Why Grant Shapps tweet about Pacer trains becoming classrooms is so regrettable – The Yorkshire Post says

GRANT SHAPPS has done himself no favours with his cackhanded social media post about old Pacer trains – and how these rail relics are now being put to new uses.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps arrives at Leeds Station in January 2020.Transport Secretary Grant Shapps arrives at Leeds Station in January 2020.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps arrives at Leeds Station in January 2020.

Before the Transport Secretary deletes his tweet to avoid further embarrassment, this is what he wrote: “As Great British Railways marks a new era for our railways, we’ve put retired Pacer trains to new uses serving Northern communities.”

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He went on to list their new roles – “a family support centre at a hospital; a kitchen for a mental health charity; a new classroom for kids”.

Former Rail Minister Andrew Jones with a pacer train - the Harrogate MP launched a competition to find new uses for the rail relics.Former Rail Minister Andrew Jones with a pacer train - the Harrogate MP launched a competition to find new uses for the rail relics.
Former Rail Minister Andrew Jones with a pacer train - the Harrogate MP launched a competition to find new uses for the rail relics.

They’re very different from the intended uses set out by Harrogate MP Andrew Jones when the then Rail Minister decided – erroneously in our view – that there was still life in these supposed carriages rather than them being carted off to the National Railway Museum where they belonged long ago.

Mr Jones said they could become “community spaces, changing rooms, cafes or new village halls”. And while DfT press officers were very quick to distance themselves from Mr Shapps, pointing out that the Pacer at Fagley Primary School, Bradford, will be a new science lab for students helping promote STEM learning, and is not a formal learning space, the damage had already been done.

After all, what Mr Shapps did was remind families here of the London Government’s low regard for the North when he, himself, has done more than most to understand this region’s frustrations. But making light of something that has ruined lives, careers and relationships is not on. And nor is the Government’s lingering and misguided view that second best will suffice here. It will not.

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