A RAILWAY action group hopes a troubled train provider has finally 'turned a corner' after a weekend airport service suffered no cancellations or late arrivals for the first time in four months.

Furness Line Action Group said Saturday's flawless Northern train airport service was the first time the train provider had successfully delivered an uninterrupted journey since the launch of a new timetable in June.

Robert Parker, from The Furness Line Action Group, said: “I really think that Northern has turned a corner after this weekend.

"Every single train was on time with no cancellations, which is the first time that has happened since the beginning of this new timetable. So there is light at the end of the tunnel.

“They have started to replace trains with more modern stock, and there has been a new timetable from June that has started to settle in so it should start to pick up.

“FLAG are here to see that people use the trains.”

Arriva Rail North (Northern) have only reached their period franchise requirement of 92.8 per cent public performance measure three times since their inception on 1 April 2016.

PPM is met by services arriving at their destination within five minutes of the scheduled time. In addition to this they have only achieved their requirement of 1.7 per cent of cancelled and seriously late trains 12 out of a total of 45 periods.

They made timetable changes in June 2019, as well as introducing more modern stock in order to combat this.

Chris Jackson, Regional Director for Northern, said: “The North deserves the best possible rail service and we are working hard to improve performance and reliability for our customers.

“While challenges remain, we are seeing significant improvements in many areas and, from Monday, will have 29 brand new trains operating on our network.

“Cumbria customers were among the first to benefit from our state-of-the-art trains and have also seen a number of discount schemes to give them even better value for money, and to say ‘thank you’ for their patience.”