A YORK man is at the helm of a £30 million transformation of a city train company's entire carriage fleet.

Rail executive Richard Bourne, 54, of Haxby, is in charge of the multi-million project to refit all of GNER 225 train carriages.

The scheme, which is seeing almost 300 carriages stripped and given a completely fresh interior, is the result of three years of planning.

Richard, who has been in the rail industry for three decades, works as field projects engineer for the York-based high-speed rail operator.

Passengers can expect to benefit from new seating, new toilets - including arrangements for disabled travellers - and improved buffet facilities.

Richard said he hoped commuters would begin to see the benefits of his team's hard work some time in the autumn. "The £30 million refit is part of an overhaul of these vehicles, which are now at their 'half life'," he said. "It is a pretty major project and passengers will see new designs for first and standard class carriages.

"There will be more accessible toilets and passengers will have more leg room. It's taking on board things which passengers have said to us."

GNER hopes the investment, made as part of its commitment to the Strategic Rail Authority when it was given a three-year franchise extension last February, will tempt even more passengers to travel by rail.

Richard said he will feel a twinge of pride when the result of his team's hard work was finally operating later this year.

He said: "We will be proud when we see the trains. We will be able to look at the end result and say to ourselves 'we did that'.

"It has been a big job and some of the time you just see the problems of making it happen. But that's only ten per cent of it.

"I enjoy my job. I went into it straight from university. There's more to it than people think."

Updated: 09:50 Tuesday, July 08, 2003