NORTHERN rail have issued a statement after a fault identified in it's new fleet of trains, prompting the removal of 22 from service.

The locomotives were recently introduced to the network to replace the long serving Pacer's and were built by Spanish multinational CAF.

This week, a spokesman said: “A fault has been identified on some of the new fleet of trains built by CAF and operated by Northern.

“The fault is affecting the mounting of the yaw dampers, a system designed to reduce swaying motion in the carriage) and has resulted in 22 trains being removed from service while the issue is investigated.

“Northern is now working closely with CAF to determine the cause of the fault and to fix the issue.

"The remaining 78 trains in Northern’s CAF fleet have been fully checked and are operating as normal. The units still in passenger service will be regularly checked as part of the engineering process.”

The spokesperson added: “At present, the temporary removal of the 22 trains, is not causing any impact on timetabled services.”