A FORMER MP has slammed rail operators after a disastrous journey.

Jack Straw was forced to get a taxi to Bolton after delays to services from Blackburn Station threatened to make him late.

The former foreign secretary added his voice to the growing number of public figures calling for the government to remove train operator Northern from its post.

He said: “It’s obvious from the statistics and also people’s daily experience that Northern is falling down very badly.

“I keep seeing statements saying it’s all getting better but what’s frustrating is that it took years of campaigning by people like me to get a half hourly service from Blackburn to Manchester and that’s fine except they are not delivering what they promised. A chronically unreliable service like this would never be tolerated if it was in the South East.”

Mr Straw went on to suggest that services should be taken over and incorporated into an integrated system, similar to TfL in London.

He added: “When Transport for London took over services they were transformed and people in the North deserve no less.”

Northern has come in for recent criticism from the mayors of both Greater Manchester and Liverpool - Andy Burnham and Steve Rotherham - for long term issues with its services.

The pair asked for the government to strip Northern of its franchise and hand power to a devolved local organisation.

Following the complaints, David Brown, managing director at Northern said: "We agree the North deserves the best possible rail service and are working hard to improve the performance and reliability for customers.

"The unacceptable disruption following the May 2018 timetable change was caused by delays in infrastructure projects out of our control. We have apologised to our customers for the pain this caused. We have seen two successful timetable changes since then, introducing many more new services.

"Since last year, we have made a large number of improvements for customers – including better punctuality, investment in new and refurbished trains, over 2,000 new services and hundreds more people employed to help customers."

Northern has boasted recent service improvements, with 97 percent of trains arriving within ten minutes of schedule in May.