The man running the new Northern Rail franchise says that passengers on the Carlisle-Newcastle line will not get new trains after all.

The franchise operator, Arriva, has placed a £490 million order for a fleet of 100mph trains to be built in Spain for delivery by October 2018.

Managing director Alex Hynes said at the weekend that some of them would be used on the Carlisle-Newcastle line, where Arriva is committed to doubling the number of trains and introducing fast limited-stop services from December next year.

But the RMT rail union queried the announcement.

And now Mr Hynes has admitted that refurbished Class 158 diesel units, dating from the early 1990s, would be used instead.

He said: “We got confused. The route will get refurbished trains rather than brand new ones, but they will be as good as new.

“Whether the trains are brand new or refurbished, from a customer perspective it won’t make any difference.

“The trains will be as good as new.”

The route will be one of 12 earmarked by Northern to be branded as part of its flagship ‘Northern Connect’ network.

Mr Hynes added that the refurbished trains would have free wifi, air conditioning, audio and visual on-board passenger information, sockets for charging phones and laptops, and CCTV.

They will have a top speed of 90mph, as opposed to 100mph for the new fleet. But the RMT says the difference is academic because the Carlisle to Newcastle line has a 65mph speed restriction.

Arriva, owned by the German state rail operator Deutsche Bahn, took over the Northern franchise from Serco and Abellio this month.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “Passengers and our members need to know what exactly Deutsche Bahn Arriva North’s plans are for transport services for the local communities.

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“Firstly, they failed to give RMT any indication on when they plan to introduce driver-only operation, despite massive opposition to their plans, which we believe are a serious threat to safety.

“Now it turns out that the latest ‘good news’ story, where thousands of passengers have been led to believe they will be travelling on new trains with shorter journey times, is not correct.

“It’s time for the new franchise holder to come clean and give clarity to its message and let the travelling public know exactly what their plans are.”

Northern has pledged to replace or refurbish all its trains, getting rid of the unpopular Pacers dating from the 1980s.

And it has said that all but the smallest stations will be equipped with video help points, ticket machines and a real-time customer information system.

Its other Cumbrian routes are the coastal line from Carlisle to Lancaster via Barrow, Carlisle-Leeds and Oxenholme-Windermere.

On the coastal route, it plans a “light” refurbishment for the locomotive-hauled trains introduced last year to provide extra capacity, but expects to replace them with more modern diesel units.