The Metro Mayor of Liverpool has called for Northern Rail to be stripped of its franchise as one of the first acts of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's new Government.
Liverpool City Region 's Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram has launched a campaign by penning an open letter to Transport Secretary Grant Shapps demanding action be taken against the firm, just days after the Conservatives' General Election victory.
The renewed call for action comes after recent from Northern revealed that fewer than half of their trains arrived on time between October and November this year.
Commuters were hit by more problems on Monday after the operator launched its new winter timetable.
Mayor Rotheram is asking residents across the Liverpool City Region and the north to join his campaign by signing an open letter and ensuring that the government hears loud and clear from passengers that enough is enough, .
The open letter to Transport Secretary Mr Shapps says that “travelling by train in the North of England has become a nightmare for passengers forced to contend with unending delays, cancellations and overcrowding on services operated by Northern… we deserve better than this second-class service".
"As passengers from across the north we say 'enough is enough' and we are demanding that you strip Northern of its franchise without any further delay”.
Liverpool City Region Business News
The winter timetable was launched yesterday, but was immediately hit by problems.
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Northern had cancelled 19 trains by 10:00 GMT and 31 were delayed, which it said was down to "operational issues" rather than the timetable change.
Mayor Rotheram added: “The people of the North cannot be expected to wait any longer for the terrible performance problems on Northern to be addressed.
"With yet more fare hikes planned in January, passengers cannot be expected to continue to pay more and more for this second class service.
“The Transport Secretary must strip Northern of its franchise without any further delay and I hope people in Merseyside and Halton and right across the North will join me in making this call.
“There can no longer be a culture on our railways where there is no consequence for failure and given the disruption we have seen on Trans Pennine Express this week, if they do not improve their performance they should be next after Northern.”
Responding to the delays yesterday, a spokesperson for Northern said: "Very few of our services have seen any changes as a result of the timetable coming in.
"The small number of delays and cancellations are due to operational issues including driver sickness, signalling failure and train faults."