TRAIN passengers in Teesside, North Yorkshire and Darlington would be better served by a powerful passenger transport executive, like those in larger conurbations, a council leader has suggested.

The proposal comes as fears have been expressed that train services are to be reduced across the north this autumn. In addition, rail industry figures show there have been 2,000 northern rail cancellations in the last three months.

Many problems have been associated with station modernisation work at Leeds, the hub of the northern trans-Pennine network, However, there has been disruption locally.

For example, passengers on the Teesside, Yarm, Northallerton and Thirsk route faced interruptions on Sunday, when they were required to break up their journeys and travel by bus.

Sunderland-based firm Arriva, which operates local trains between Bishop Auckland, Darlington, Saltburn and Whitby, and trans-Pennine services across the North, says it has a shortage of train drivers and other problems.

It says its own staff are joining rival inter city train firms, where pay is apparently higher. It has proposed replacing some trains with alternative bus services, in an attempt to reduce the impact of the shortage.

However, Coun David Walsh, leader of Redcar and Cleveland council, fears that local services could be cut badly, while other services in West Yorkshire or Tyne and Wear, where influential passenger transport executives exist, could be to retained at near-normal levels.

Coun Walsh said there was a particular shortage of Arriva train drivers on the West Yorkshire network and the area's passenger transport executive had argued strongly against any proposed cuts. Instead, it had called for positive action.

He was concerned that local train drivers could be transferred to West Yorkshire. In addition, high speed trans-Pennine express connections to and from West Yorkshire could be reduced.

Arriva has asked for understanding and flexibility. It has said it inherited staff and rolling stock shortages, plus a maintenance backlog, from its predecessor, Northern Spirit.

However, when the powerful West Yorkshire passenger transport executive recently met to consider the problem, it called for services to be maintained at normal levels.

Since then, the former managing director of Arriva Trains, Mr Nigel Patterson, has left the company, which has made a pre-tax profit of more than £42m.

Coun Walsh said local government reorganisation in the 70s and the 80s meant that public transport policy was conducted differently in shire, unitary and metropolitan counties.

Metropolitan areas co-ordinated both rail and bus services through the executives, resulting in highly integrated and subsidised public transport.

In West Yorkshire, old lines and stations had been re-opened. In Tyne and Wear, the Metro was being extended to Sunderland and Washington.

The executives included local councillors, who strongly represented passengers' interests.

However, there was no executive for this region, Coun Walsh pointed out.