CLAPPED-OUT Tube trains could be used on key rail routes in northern England under new franchises on offer to privateers, rail union RMT warned yesterday.

The union says the franchises for Northern Rail and Trans-Pennine Express (TPE) network put services, safety and jobs at risk and threaten massive fare increases.

And yesterday the union said “massive gaps in the rolling stock availability” could mean 30-year-old London Underground trains being used as a stop-gap, because the privateers are not obliged to use new trains.

The wording of the franchises only “encourages” successful franchise bidders to replace the two fleets’ ageing Pacer units with new rolling stock.

RMT is campaigning across northern England against the new franchises, targeting dozens of stations and handing out tens of thousands of leaflets to win passengers’ support and put pressure on the government.

From today activists will target Rotherham, Barnsley, Hull, Manchester, York, Sunderland and Newcastle.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “The government’s whole franchise timetable for the Northern and TPE routes has descended into chaos.

“Let’s not forget that the core of the government’s future plans for Northern and TPE is to axe jobs, restrict services, throw the guards off the trains and jack up fares while capacity to meet surging rail demand in the area is left to stagnate.

“That attack on the fare-paying public has already begun with the abolition of a wide range of off-peak fares and only an all-out and co-ordinated fight can stop the savage assault on rail in the north.”