A KEY meeting of rail chiefs is being held in three weeks time to try to get more modern trains rolling through Warrington Central.

Most services on the line are provided by Northern Rail's old-fashioned Pacer' trains - they were built in a cash crisis in the 1980s, and have a bus-style interior and a bumpy ride.

Northern Rail wants new stock but cannot afford it, so it will meet with the Manchester and Liverpool travel executives and the Warrington-based Northwest Development Agency to try to sort out a deal.

The trains the firm wants cost around £100,000 a year to lease. In West Yorkshire, the travel executives and regional development agency helped the train company pay for new rolling stock.

Brian Simpson, the chairman of the North West Rail Campaign and a Great Sankey resident, will be at the meeting.

He said: "What we are hoping to do is get the West Yorkshire model here to try to do something about the pacers, which are more than 20 years old and not ideal.

"We are hoping to progress this issue further and see what can be done to try to get together some kind of deal for new rolling stock."