Parry People Movers

Parry People Movers
PPM No. 35 at the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway, Wirksworth.
Specifications
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge

Parry People Movers Ltd. (PPM) is a British company manufacturing lightweight trams and railcars that use flywheel energy storage (FES) to store energy for traction, allowing electric systems to operate without overhead wires or third rails, and railcars fuelled by small gas, diesel or hydrogen engines.

London Midland, owner of the West Midlands franchise, began operating a single PPM50 (Class 999) unit on the Stourbridge line on Sundays in 2006, with a Class 153 diesel multiple unit (DMU) providing a weekday service. In June 2009, the Class 153 was replaced by two PPM60 units, classified as Class 139 (with another as spare), providing a 10-minute frequency in both directions. Although the capacity of the unit (60 passengers) is less than the DMU, overall capacity is increased due to the greater frequency, up from 4 to 6 trains per hour.

From 24 January 2011, Go! Cooperative planned to be operating a trial service between Alton and Medstead & Four Marks on the Mid-Hants Railway using the Class 999 unit. This was abandoned after a series of mechanical and electrical failures and due to the unit proving to be unsuitable for the long and steep gradients on the line the unit is now being reconfigured to address the problems with a redesigned chassis and conversion from LPG to Diesel power and the trial will be repeated.

In January 2012, plans emerged for new bigger PPMs to be used on the South Staffordshire Line between Stourbridge Junction and Brierley Hill, providing passenger services on the line for the first time since the Beeching Axe.