THE TUC last night piled the pressure on Arriva Trains Northern (ATN) bosses to solve their long-running dispute with conductors.

The union's Northern and Yorkshire regions jointly called on the company to "act in good faith" and return to the negotiating table with a new pay offer.

Conductors working for ATN have held a series of strikes since the beginning of the year.

They have rejected a four per cent offer, with 1.4 per cent on top based on productivity gains, and are pushing for a near ten per cent rise.

The TUC said Arriva had claimed it could not afford to reach a settlement - yet had recently announced significant profits.

It also claimed an increase in the number of services being cancelled because of the on-going dispute.

TUC Northern regional secretary Kevan Rowan said: "This is a dispute that should have been resolved some time ago. It would seem that Arriva are content to allow services to continue to decline as they maintain their intransigence in negotiations.

"We strongly urge Arriva to revisit the bargaining table with a view to seeking a resolution to this dispute in good faith."

Ray Price, managing director of Arriva Trains Northern said: "We absolutely agree with the Northern, Yorkshire and North West regions of the TUC that this dispute could, and should, have been resolved some time ago. We urge the Northern, Yorkshire and North West regions of the TUC to encourage the RMT to join us for meaningful discussions or to accept our invitation to involve the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS).

"The service cancellations figure quoted is completely inaccurate. Performance is steadily improving and our last reporting period was the best we have had in the past three years.

"Regrettably, it appears the union have not been able to gain a clear understanding of the issues surrounding the dispute and we would welcome the opportunity to discuss these with them in detail at any time.