SIR David Crausby has been granted a debate in parliament on the ongoing Northern train chaos.

Commuters have been hit with heavy train delays again this morning and things are only expected to get worse this week with two strikes planned.

The Bolton North East MP called the service "unacceptably poor" and said government ministers "cannot keep ignoring the problems".

Issues began yesterday when changes to Northern's train timetables led to chaos across the north west, with many passengers arriving at Bolton stations to find that services had been cancelled or delayed indefinitely.

In response to the issues, Sir David said: "If they know they can't deliver the timetable why is there no plan to minimize disruption, inform people of cancellations and help them get to work rather than cancel trains day after day with no notice?"

The company has defended itself, with a spokesman claiming that staff were doing "everything we can to ensure we minimise any service disruption and keep customers informed as quickly as we can through our website and social media."

They added: "The May 2018 timetable change, which went live today for commuters, has seen around 90% of our services change and an extra 1,300 train services a week introduced across our network, the biggest change to local rail for many years. This remains a significant operational challenge and we continue to expect some localised service disruption, which could happen at very short-notice.

"Northern customers are urged to check their train times before they travel at National Rail Enquiries or on our website, and on twitter at @northernassist, where we will post notification of known disruption as soon as we can."

The problems come as the operator has warned that only 40pc of services could run during two days of strike action this week.

Northern customers were already hit by action earlier in the month when members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) boycotted services.

However, ongoing disputes around the use of driver-only operated trains have led to the organisation announcing more strikes on Thursday, May 24, and Saturday, May 26.

In response to the plans, Richard Allan, Northern’s deputy manager director, said: “It is disappointing that RMT has chosen to target its strike action during the week of the bank holiday weekend, the first week of the new timetable and several events to commemorate the first anniversary of the Manchester attack.

“We are still prepared to guarantee jobs and pay reviews for conductors until the end of our franchise in 2025, with the government guaranteeing jobs beyond that, but both guarantees depend on the RMT ending its strike action.

“We urge the RMT to move away from its nationally coordinated strikes and allow its local representatives to engage in meaningful discussions with us on how we better serve customers on-board our new and refurbished trains.”

Announcing the industrial action, RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “Northern Rail want to run half a million trains a year without a safety critical guard on board in a move that would wreck both safety and access to services and they should listen to their front-line staff and pull back from that plan immediately.”

Problems are further compounded by ongoing staff shortages caused by driver training and disputes over working on rest days.

HAVE YOU BEEN AFFECTED BY TRAINS DELAYS AND CANCELLATIONS TODAY? Let us know in the comments below, on Twitter or email seamus.mcdonnell@nqnw.co.uk