BOSSES at a railway operator plagued with problems in Furness have admitted "it's not good enough."

The frank and open admission was made by Northern's regional director Sharon Keith at a meeting of the Cumbria Better Connected group.

Chaired by Barrow and Furness MP John Woodcock, the group met to discuss the issues on the line after passengers were hit with more delays this week.

Ms Keith said: "I am incredibly passionate about what we do. I won't stand here and say it's all great because it's just not good enough.

"I understand how important this is to the people of Cumbria, but there isn't a magic wand or silver bullet to fix the problems.

"I don't want to find myself in this situation but the reality is we are not getting it right. Cumbria takes up a huge amount of my time and that is only right because until we get it right it needs it."

Among the guests at the meeting at Ulverston's Coronation Hall were representatives from the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, GSK and Network Rail.

Mr Woodcock said: "We all want to get the best deal for passengers right now and in the years ahead. I think we need to recognise the situation we're in is dreadful.

"The professionals here in this room have jobs in the railways and a responsibility of that is to keep passengers happy and that is not happening at the moment.

"In our various roles we all want to be able to get from one place to another in a certain level of comfort but we also want to give a good impression of our area."

Ms Keith also updated the group on the progress of their upgrades. The firm are in the process of bringing 98 state-of-the-art new trains onto the line by 2020, at a cost of £580m. They are also investing £70m in stations around the line, including four Cumbrian stations currently out-of-use.