MP DAVID Crausby has backed Andy Burnham's call for a probe into Northern Rail's failures.

The Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham called on Transport for the North chairman John Cridland to investigate Northern Rail’s failure to meet its targets.

Bolton North East MP, Sir David said: “Northern Rail is an absolute disgrace and Mr Burnham is right to challenge them. When I met with Railtrack and Northern Rail together, I said to them, given the promises the firm had made, if they had been my proverbial ‘girlfriends’, I would have dumped them years ago! “

He backed a parliamentary motion calling for an investigation into Northern’s failures and for the government to consider stripping Arriva (the umbrella body), of the Northern Rail franchise, to bring the service back into public ownership.

He added: “You should be able to trust that the trains will turn up, they will be on time, and they will have the right number of carriages with enough seats for everyone. Northern consistently fail to deliver that basic service."

“This has gone on long enough and the Government can’t keep ignoring the problem. The public deserve to see that there are real consequences for Northern’s failures and the Government must seriously consider bringing the franchise back into public ownership to be run in the interests of passengers.”

Today Northern Rail has been unavailable for comment.