A YORK councillor called for more transport powers to deal with chaos on the railways.

Cllr Stephen Fenton represented the city at a Transport for the North (TfN) meeting in Manchester on Tuesday, and said he wanted to show “solidarity” with the areas that have been worst hit by rail problems.

“The botched changes to rail timetables have caused misery for passengers across the North. If this chaos is not resolved quickly, I am concerned that there will be a serious knock to confidence in rail services, which are crucial for workers and visitors to York,” Cllr Fenton added.

The extraordinary meeting of TfN was called after widespread problems caused by a new timetable on Northern Rail routes.

As previously reported, newspapers in the north - including The Press - have called on the Prime Minister to find a solution to the crisis, and urged a review of rail franchising.

Cllr Fenton went on to call for more powers for TfN, to let the body properly deal with problems like those on Northern’s services.

He said: “We have put up with reliability and capacity problems on the railway for far too long.

“There is now a broad consensus that it is time that the Government trusted the North to deliver, and that starts with devolution of decision-making responsibilities.”