Nothern Trains: We are sorry for our recent performance and accept it has not been good enough

It comes after a particularly difficult day for travellers on Sunday (November 25) when cancelled trains led some passengers to endure journeys twice as long as they would normally be.

Some rail journeys to Preston and through to Blackpool were among those affected, as well as routes up to Scotland.

Passengers say they were told that although a number of routes had been disrupted by extreme wind and rain from Storm Bert, which caused major problems across the UK, other problems were down to staffing issues - particularly on Sundays.

Northern says the latest figures (October 13 to November 9) show the train operating company ran almost 92 per cent of services and 71 per cent arrived within three minutes of schedule.

However, it concedes there have been issues with performance, particularly in the North West on Sundays.

Matt Rice, Northern’s chief operating officer, said: “We are sorry for our recent performance, accept it has not been good enough and understand the impact this has on our customers.

“We are working hard to address issues with train crew availability so we can improve reliability for our customers.

“We recently secured a new rest-day working agreement for our train drivers and have offered conductors a new deal to work on Sundays.

“Following constructive talks, the RMT’s National Executive Committee reviewed our four-month offer before putting it to their members for a referendum vote.

“We realise there is more to be done to address issues with performance and are now focused on delivering our improvement plan.”

Northern is owned by DfT OLR Holdings for the Department of Transport and began operating after the previous operator, Arriva Rial North, had its franchise terminated at the end of February 2020.