The Northern Rail franchise will only be able to continue "for a number of months", according to the most recent financial information, the Government has said.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced he is evaluating a proposal from the train operator on options for continuing its franchise.

"Following completion of this process I will consider whether to award ARN (Arriva Rail North) a short-term management contract or whether to ask the Department of Transport's own operator of last resort to step in and deliver passenger services," he said.

Longer-term decisions on the franchise will be made in the light of recommendations of the Williams Rail Review, expected to be published shortly.

Chris Burchell, Arriva's managing director of UK Trains, said: "We accept services on the Northern network are not yet good enough and we sincerely apologise to our customers for our role in that.

"Many of the issues affecting the franchise however are outside the direct control of Northern. Assumptions were given when the plan for the franchise was developed that critical infrastructure projects would be delivered to enable growth and support capacity demands.

"Many of these have either been delayed or cancelled. This, along with unprecedented levels of strike action, has had a significant impact on the franchise - both in terms of service and financial performance.

"These challenges will continue to affect services irrespective of who is running them.

"What is needed is a new plan and, in that analysis, we are fully in agreement with Government. 

Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron – who has repeatedly called for the Government to “sack Northern” – accused it of “shilly-shallying” over a decisive decision.

“The Conservative Government’s big announcement on Northern is just more delay, something that rail passengers in the North are all too familiar with,” he said.

“It’s completely unthinkable that the Secretary of State is prepared to award Northern a short-term contract, despite their complete failure to actually run trains on train lines.

“What more evidence does he need that this company are utterly incapable of running a half-decent train service?

“The Transport Secretary needs to stop shilly-shallying, pluck up the courage and sack Northern.”

Meanwhile, Northern Powerhouse Partnership director, Henri Murison, said there were other considerations at stake.
 
“While there has been a great public clamour for stripping Northern of their franchise, and a belated recognition that Trans Pennine Express are just as bad, the crying shame is that whoever operates the railways in the North will struggle to run good and reliable services because of the major infrastructure issues in and out of some of our major cities,” he said.
 
“While the forthcoming Williams review will rightly address issues with the franchising process in the North, government should urgently act to undertake the engineering works needed to allow operators to run services more effectively, including a number that could be started immediately. 

“Otherwise we risk a situation where the North faces years more misery on its rail network – regardless of who runs the trains.”