NORTHERN cancelled 80 services on Sunday, for a third successive weekend and it is understood that this will continue throughout the summer.

However Northern bosses insist that any cancellations Monday to Saturday are "teething problems" and insist they are on track to deliver a full timetable by September.

The Mayors of Greater Manchester and Liverpool City Region have written to the Transport Secretary demanding a freeze on rail fares, expected to rise by 3.5 per cent in 2019.

Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Liverpool have been the most affected by Northern’s cancellations due to ongoing engineering projects which cause difficulties around the short-notice scheduling of train crews.

Previously, Northern blamed Sunday cancellations on staff making themselves “unavailable for work”, but the company was rebuked by the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union for “lumping the blame”.

A total of 168 services that were removed as part of an emergency timetable were reinstated on July 30, but Northern says that the Sunday cancellations are unrelated.

A Northern spokesperson said: “The reintroduction of the services at the end of July had some teething problems in the first few days but has now settled in and the overall timetable is running satisfactory.

“The remaining 25 per cent of services will be reintroduced in September and we will provide more customer information nearer the time.”

However, passengers arriving in Bolton on Monday were still affected by delays and cancellations.

Two passengers, who planned to return to Bolton from Wolverhampton on Sunday, said that they postponed their journey by a day because of the weekend cancellations, but their train was still delayed on Monday morning.

Other passengers were delayed because an 11.20 service from Blackpool North was cancelled due to a shortage of train drivers.

Linda Burgess, who was travelling from Poulton-Le-Fylde, said: “They just cancelled it. There was no announcement.”

Debbie Schuller, from Halliwell, had the same issue travelling with her partner on the service from Blackpool.

She said: “They should have warned us.”

Ms Schuller, aged 49, agreed that fares should be frozen and would see this as a form of compensation for the misery caused over the summer.

Linda Robertson, from Little Lever, travelled from Blackpool on Sunday and was forced to use a rail replacement bus service.

She said that the replacement buses are generally reliable and she is comfortable with a rise in rail fares if the added revenue is spent on improvements to infrastructure.

She said: “I know there’s a lot of work going on. If the money goes towards that, then that’s good.”

Sir David Crausby said that many of his constituents are still regularly contacting him directly through social media to complain about disruption on the railways.

The Bolton North East MP supported the call from Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram to freeze fares, saying that any rise in rail fares “outrageous”.

He said: “That’s the least Chris Grayling can do, but it’s not just about fares.

“We want a railway service that people going to work can depend on. And it’s not dependable. The very worst thing would be to increase the fares.”

Sir David wrote to Chris Grayling on July 16 urging him to hold Northern to account, get railways functioning normally and deliver promised improvements.

So far, Sir David has sent the Transport Secretary two letters and has only received an acknowledgement.

He said: “I don’t think they can do anything adequate whilst they allow Northern to run the franchise. They continue to demonstrate they are incapable of running a railway.”

The exact fare rise will be confirmed on Wednesday when the July Retail Prices Index (RPI) measure of inflation is released by the Office for National Statistics.

But economists from Investec and EY Item Club predict that the figure, traditionally used to determine the annual increase in regulated train fares, will be announced as 3.5 per cent which would increase the price of a season ticket between Bolton and Manchester by £36 to £1,056. In their letter, Mayors Burnham and Rotheram said: “This crisis has caused real damage to the North – the current estimate is that at least £38m has been lost from the economy – and has led to many commuters turning their backs on using the train and seeking other means of getting around.”The Mayors argue that a 2019 fares freeze is proportionate given the disruption on both networks over the past few months and the delays in planned service upgrades.They also believe a freeze could help attract back passengers to the railways who have been put off by recent disruption.According to the Which? consumer insight tracker, rail is the least-trusted consumer industry apart from car dealers, with only 23 per cent trusting the industry.The Labour MP said that the Department for Transport should prepare to strip Northern of the franchise and run it themselves.He cited the successful public takeover of the East Coast main line to argue that nationalised railways work. Sir David said: “It’s a management issue. They have made a terrible hash of it.”

“The Secretary of State for Transport adequately run the East Coast main line so they do have the ability to run this service.”