A total of seventeen Class 142 units based at Newton Heath TMD (142041-049 and 142051-058) were refurbished for use on Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive's City Line on services around the Liverpool and Greater Manchester areas. The refurbishment included dot-matrix route indicators, a new design of individual low-backed seating and the units were repainted into Merseyrail's livery. Upon privatisation, these units passed to First North Western in March 1997. All of these sets transferred to Northern in 2016, however remained in the livery of previous operator Northern Rail.