Why it is not end of the line for these Pacer trains – The Yorkshire Post says
The Rail Minister Andrew Jones, whose Harrogate constituency is still served by the unloved buses-on-wheels conceived as a stopgap in the dying days of the nationalised network, is clearly hoping that passengers will come to lament their disappearance – in the same way as red telephone boxes, for instance. He was in Leeds yesterday to launch a “competition” for community groups to suggest alternative uses for three of the carriages when they are finally retired at the end of the year.
However, unlike those phone kiosks, no one ever thought of Pacers as symbolic representations of our British way of life; they are and remain cattle trucks suitable for only the most utilitarian human use.
Offloading them for community use suggests what many had long suspected: not even the scrapyards want them.